Finding Her Serenity
by Rose's.wings
Summary: 200 years after Serenity's crew discovered Miranda, Elizabeth Reynolds captains Serenity. But things are getting weird. What is in the box that was mailed to Eliza nearly 200 years ago? And what does the Old Alliance want with it, her crew, and herself.
1. Chapter 1: The Junkyard

Disclaimer: I do not own Serenity the ship, even though I love her dearly. I don't own the crew from Firefly, but Elizabeth and her friends are mine, plus this story idea.

Finding Her Serenity

Chapter 1: The Junkyard

Dear Simon,

By now you will have realized that I have left. Please don't think that I did so because I thought I wasn't wanted. I understand now that all of you on board Serenity cared for me each in your own way. I left because I feel that there is more for me to do and you can not help me. Don't look for me. I understand all of you too well to be caught by you. Besides, where I am going, none of you can follow. I hope all of you will live long and happily. Good Bye.

Love,

River Tam

Simon Tam reread his sister's letter once more in astonishment. Why would she leave? He couldn't understand. It had been three months since the crew of Serenity had told the known worlds about Miranda. In all that time, River had not shown any signs of unrest or that she needed to do something.

Kaylee stepped into the room. She was still in her wedding dress with flowers in her hair. "What's the matter Simon?" She asked when she saw the look on his face.

"She's gone." He choked out.

Kaylee stared at him. "What?"

"River's gone." He said feeling the adrenaline starting to hit him.

For a moment Kaylee couldn't move. "She's gone?" When her husband nodded, she ran out of the room holding up the skirts of her dress. "Capt'n!" She cried. "Capt'n! Rivers gone!" She found the others in the dining room talking over what food and drink was left. They stopped when they saw Kaylee's distress.

"What is it Kaylee?" Captain Malcolm Reynolds asked from his chair where he had been talking with Zoë.

"River's gone!" She cried as Simon followed her into the room.

Mal looked at the doctor. "Gone?"

Simon nodded his head and showed them the note. "She left. Her room's empty and she's not on the ship."

Mal read River's note and wondered what could have made their little albatross jump ship just after her brother and best friend's wedding? What could have made her jump ship at all? She loved Serenity as much as anyone else did.

The searched for years looking for River Tam, but they never found her. She was right when she said she knew them too well to get caught by them. While they searched, life moved on. Kaylee and Simon had children who loved Serenity as much as Mal himself did, not that Mal's kids didn't love their home, they adored it like their father. Inara was very proud of them. Zoë never remarried but stayed with her captain. After all, she was his right hand. Jayne really didn't change. He stayed on board but threatened to leave often, although that might have had something to do with the children that kept bugging him. River knew this would happen. It was in their natures to continue life like this and she would have loved to have been a part of it, but something was pulling her. There was still more for her to do before she finally found her Serenity.

200 years later on the planet Cerulean

Elizabeth Meer Reynolds stared up at the most beautiful ship she had ever seen. Looking at it, she easily understood why her ancestor Malcolm Reynolds had fallen in love with the old Firefly class ship, Serenity.

"What a piece of crud. No wonder you found it in a junkyard." Her friend Taylor commented as he caught sight of what Elizabeth was dreamily looking at. "Are you sure you want _that_?" He asked pointing at the broken down old Firefly. At 23, Taylor was what most girls considered attractive. He was basically tall, dark, and handsome.

_Too bad he has such a big mouth._ Elizabeth thought as she gave Taylor a sour look.

Taylor met her gaze. "What?" He asked innocently as she started down the hill of smashed parts, broken machinery, and all around junk. "I'm I wrong?"

Elizabeth ignored him and continued down the hill. A good half hour later they were standing at Serenity's side. As much as she hated to admit it, Taylor did have a point. Serenity would need some major work before she ever made it in the air. Ignoring that for the moment, Elizabeth started to circle around her Firefly. When she finally made it to the back, she realized that this was going to be much more work and money then she thought. And so far she had just looked at the outside!

"Well," Taylor said as he clapped his hands together. "If the outside is this ugly, do we dare to look inside?"

Elizabeth glared at him again. "Of course we do! We can't fix her up if we never even look inside. And she is _not_ ugly. She's the most beautiful ship I've ever seen!"

Taylor stared at her. "You are insane. You know that right?"

"Yep!" Elizabeth said proudly as she smiled widely and strode up to Serenity's back entrance.

Inside, Serenity was just as old and decrepit as the outside. There were old boxes and miscellaneous objects strewn across the floor and the staircases were rusting. "Well," Elizabeth said as she looked around the large room. "At least she can't look any worse." Taylor gave her a skeptic look.

"Are you sure you want to spend the majority of your life savings on this?" He asked as he nudged an empty box with his foot.

Elizabeth didn't say anything, but instead walked forward through the junk. She looked 0ver the whole ship, peeking into rooms that had previously been used as guest rooms, storage areas, playrooms, and all other sorts of things. As she looked through the rooms and areas and little spaces, Elizabeth thought of all the people who had lived on this ship. In the two hundred years since Elizabeth's several time great-great-grandfather, Malcolm Reynolds, had owned Serenity, a lot of history had passed. Elizabeth had been obsessed with Serenity's history as much as her own family history, begging her parents to tell her stories about Mal and his crew since she was very young. Her obsession had actually led to her friendship with Taylor. When she found out that the boy sitting next to her on the bus on the way home from school was related to Zoë Washburn, the same Zoë Washburn that had been Malcolm Reynolds right hand, she tried to get him to talk to her. Although Taylor would have put it differently. ("She wouldn't leave me alone! She followed me like a two foot tall Kindergarten stalker!" "I did not!") Elizabeth must have had at least some of the same determination and leadership skills, because the older boy had followed her as loyally as Zoë had followed Mal from that time on.

"Well, all right then." She said as she started to walk back to entrance of Serenity. "First, let's pick up this mess. Then we can look around and see what we need to repair." She told Taylor, picking up some trash as she did so.

Taylor started to straighten the empty crates. "And I suppose you'll make the rest up when you get there."

"Yep. Does that work for you?"

"Yeah, that could work."

"Okay then. Let's get to work.


	2. Chapter 2: Birthday Surprise

Hey again! Here's the second chapter and thanks to the three people who reviewed. You guys really made my day. Hope you continue to like the story. By the way, I do not own anyone or anything except Eliza and her crew.

Chapter 2: Birthday Surprise

Elizabeth surveyed the barren rock surrounding her as she and Taylor sped through it on their way back from town. It had been six years since they had found Serenity abandoned in the junkyard. Since then, they had fixed her up, found (and amazingly kept) a crew, and gotten small odd jobs at a steady pace. As well as a few big ones from the New Alliance, but they weren't allowed to talk about those. After this stop, however, they were to go to Atlantis so they could pick up a shipment of food stuffs to deliver to a small moon for the New Alliance. The New Alliance had taken control 200 years ago when Miranda had been exposed. Elizabeth really wasn't thrilled at having to make deliveries for the New Alliance. It wasn't that she didn't like the government, she just didn't like the smell of fish that she knew was going to stick to stick to both Serenity and the crew for weeks.

As they pulled up to her beautiful Firefly, Elizabeth pulled herself away from the nasty thoughts of fish stink and told the new pilot, John, to open the door.

After they were inside, Elizabeth asked Taylor, "Do you need any help with this stuff?"

Taylor shook his head. "No I got it."

"Okay." Elizabeth said and then left to make sure that everyone else was ready to leave.

First she swung by the cockpit to visit John. John Stuart was an ordinary sort of guy with fairly average piloting skills. He had come on board a few days ago at Apollo and so far she saw no reason not to keep him aboard. However, he could be rather aloof.

"Hey John," She called when she reached the door and saw him bent over the controls. "About how long until we're ready to leave?"

John did not look up from what he was doing. "In about half an hour Captain." He said quietly and calmly, not disturbed by the sudden entrance.

It went quiet as John continued to work and Elizabeth watched until she felt the familiar awkwardness as John's wall of silence came up, keeping everybody out and his privacy in.

"Okay then." She said quickly and left to find the rest of her crew. While John was a mare then adequate pilot, he was a less then adequate talker. Elizabeth noticed that he would interact with the rest of the crew and any guests they might have only when needed and at a limited extent. It didn't really worry her, he just loved his privacy. Nothing wrong with that.

Leaving John and his walls in the cockpit, Elizabeth walked down the hallway that had the crew's rooms off to either side. At the far end of the hall was Cassiopeia.

"Why hello your highness." Elizabeth said smiling as she dropped into a mock curtsey. Cassiopeia glared up at Elizabeth but didn't say anything. Instead, she went back to washing her extremely white paw.

"What? Not in the mood for jokes?" Elizabeth said as she knelt down to pet her cat. Cassiopeia leaned into her hand and started to purr when Elizabeth began to scratch under her silvery tipped ears.

"There's my pretty girl." Eliza crooned, but stopped scratching Cassiopeia and stood up. Cassiopeia shook her head, sending the small bell on her collar tinkling, before she left to bathe somewhere else.

Elizabeth continued on her way to Serenity's small, if not very effective, clinic to tell Alex that they were leaving soon. She found him organizing their new medical supplies in a hurry. Apparently, he had already gotten the memo.

"When are we leaving Captain?" Alex didn't turn from what he was doing when he addressed her, but continued to check the cabinets to make sure they were secure.

"In less then half an hour. Have you seen Ruth or Jules anywhere?"

"Yes, they were in the dining area last time I saw them."

"Okay. Thanks." Elizabeth said and moved on. She never liked to stay in the clinic very long if she could help it. It wasn't Alex, he was a nice guy as far as doctors went, if not a little too organized. That room, though, scared her. It was too white, too clean. Things stood out more there and it always smelled funny. Overall, it just freaked her out.

Fortunately, the dining area was the exact opposite of the clinic. It was colored warmly in reds and yellows, with dark red curtains draped from the corners of the room. A deep brown table sat in the center of the room with chairs all around it. The little kitchen area had fake tile flooring and the cabinets and countertops that were the same deep brown as the table. Currently, one of those countertops held an assortment of baking items that were being measured and put into a large bowl by Ruth and Jules.

"Hey guys. Is that chocolate?" Her question surprised them and they jumped.

"Oh! Eliza, it's just you." Ruth said as she accidentally smeared flour on her forehead with her hands. "Yeah it is. We're making the cake for tonight. Michael loves chocolate."

Eliza smiled. "Who doesn't? But anyway, we're taking off in less then half an hour. Try not to make too big of a mess and don't let Michael see!"

"We won't." Jules said calmly as he measured something or other. At 19, Jules Conrad acted older then most fifty year olds. He had been put through a lot in life and was now seriously considering becoming a Shepard. Elizabeth sincerely hoped he wouldn't do it. She thought he was running to religion in order to hide from the outside world and not because of his love of God. He was a sweet boy and Elizabeth didn't want to see him give up on the outside world so soon. So, she let him stay on Serenity as a guest, although he did insist on doing something whenever they needed help, like helping Ruth with the cooking and cleaning.

Ruth herself was a sweet girl. _'Well, more lady then girl.'_ Eliza thought finding it hard to believe that her little sister wasn't so little anymore. She and Alex had been married for nearly three years and were thinking having children. Although, as far as she knew, Ruth and Alex were still working on that, but Eliza tried hard to burn that from her head. It wasn't something she really wanted to think about.

Elizabeth left Ruth and Jules to continue their baking and went to talk to Michael. She found him in his own personal playground, the engine room. She watched for a moment as he went from one thing to the next, prepping Serenity for flight.

"Hi Michael." She said when he came close enough to hear.

Michael stopped long enough to give his wife a hug and a kiss. "Hey. How long until we leave?"

"In about ten minutes. Do you need any help?"

Michael shook his head. "No, I just got one more thing to do and then I'm done." Michael knew very well that Eliza didn't know enough about mechanics to casually help out. She was better at leading a ship, not fixing it.

Eliza watched as her husband finished whatever he was doing to the machinery surrounding Serenity's beating heart. To think that that heart had been the reason why they'd met, it sill amazed her.

Michael finished and sat next to her on the bench in the corner. "So," He said. "Did you find everything? Fuel? Meds? Cat food? Chocolate icing?"

Eliza ticked his grocery list off on her fingers. "Fuel, yes. Meds, yes. Cat food, yes. Chocolate icing? Now why in the world would we need chocolate icing?" She looked up innocently at the ceiling and started to whistle.

Michael didn't buy it. "Uh-huh. I don't believe that look, or that whistle."

Eliza pretended to look shocked. "Gasp!" She actually said out loud. "Now why wouldn't you believe my look of utter innocence?"

"Because although you may be an angel, you are not a completely innocent one."

Eliza smiled. "Thank you. I think." She added starting to think too much about what he had just said.

"Well then your welcome, I think." He said leaning closer to her.

"Hey Michael! Elizabeth! We're ready to take off." Taylor yelled at them through the intercom. Eliza sighed. _'Too bad,'_ she thought._ 'Things were just looking up.'_

She stood up and walked over to the intercom. "Okay Taylor, I'll be right up." She let go of the little button and gave Michael one last kiss before heading up the stairs.

"Take us up when you're ready John." She told him once she got there and they were off.

Several hours later, Serenity sat in a similar, small planet space port. Looking out at Atlantis, Eliza realized that there wasn't really any difference.

"Except for all the itchy salt water in the air." She muttered to herself as she started to feel the inevitable itching.

"What did you say?" Taylor asked as he locked up Serenity while everyone was gone.

"Nothing." She said and tried to restrain her hands from scratching. "I'm going to go pick up the cargo from the mail depot and look around. I'll have my radio on incase anyone needs me. Are you coming with me Michael or are you going somewhere else?"

"No, I'll go with you. It's not like there's much else to look at." He said as he placed his own small radio on his collar and turned it on. The device was small and could be turned on or off with voice activation. 'Radio' really wasn't a good name for it, but it was named after its creator, Allen H. Radio, so there really wasn't much they could do about it. Especially since he had lived and died about seventy years ago.

"Okay. We'll see you all in a couple hours. Have fun." Eliza said as Michael took her hand and they walked off. They decided to get the most annoying chore out of the way first, so they walked to the mail station to pick up their cargo of fish and see if there was any other mail for Serenity's passengers.

The mail station was a small, drab place with mud colored walls and cement floor. Eliza and Michael quickly walked up to the one person wooden desk and asked for their crates and mail. The short, white haired man behind the desk quickly found the crates and handed them over. Michael saw Eliza wrinkle her nose in disgust when she caught a whiff of the fish and laughed. Eliza was taking two large steps away when the old man asked, "I'm sorry. Did you say 'Elizabeth Reynolds Tam'?"

Eliza looked up, wondering what could be the problem. "Yes. Is there a problem?"

The old man shook his head. "No. I just realized that we do have a package for you. Been here for some time. I was wondering when you were going to come and fetch it. Now let's see, where's the last place I saw it?" He rambled on as he went to the back to get her package.

Michael and Eliza looked at each other. "Did you order something?" Michael asked smiling; probably thinking it had something to do with his birthday.

"No. I didn't." She told him truthfully. She had his present hidden in the last place he would ever look, her bathroom cabinet. She had no idea what was in this large, grey, rectangular box that the post man was wheeling out. "Did you?" She asked Michael just to be sure, but when he shrugged her mind started to wonder if the box had been mislabeled.

"Are you sure it's for me?" She asked the old man as she bent down to look at the box.

"If your Elizabeth Meer Reynolds Tam then yes, I am. Mighty long name if you ask me. Though I figured if three of them were right then the last one was too."

"It is." Elizabeth said confused. Who had sent her this? What was it?

"Well aren't you goin' to sign for it then? And the fish crates too." He said holding out a stylus and an electronic sign sheet.

"Yeah, just hold on a minute." Eliza finished inspecting the box and, when she found no other name but hers on the computerized label that allowed the mail to keep up with its recipient, she signed her name and she and Michael took both the crates and the mysterious box back to Serenity. After that, they explored and forgot all about both.

Later that evening, everyone was gathered around the table singing Happy Birthday to Michael who sat at the head of the table while Ruth brought out her cake. It glowed in the dark room with twenty-seven candles lit on top of it. She set it down as everybody finished singing and Michael blew out the candles in one breath. Everyone cheered politely and then, promptly, attacked the fudge covered chocolate cake. Well, all except John who quietly excused himself saying he didn't like chocolate and went back to his room. Everybody else, though, stayed up well into the night with food and talk and fun. It was around midnight before anyone even thought of going to bed, but eventually they all did. They did not have any plans for the next day and planned to sleep in unless it was absolutely necessary. John was the only one up at a reasonable hour the next morning. As he sat down in his chair and scanned the instruments, he noticed something odd on the radar. He tapped the beeping dot and an image of an Old Alliance vessel appeared on the larger screen.

"Strange." He muttered to himself. "They never come near to New Alliance territory. What in the world are they doing here now?" He reached towards the comm. button that led to the captain's room, but before he could press it to warn her, a silent blow rocked the ship sending John reeling.


	3. Chapter 3: The Lioness

Merry Christmas! I'm sooooo sorry it took, what, ten months for me to actually write this. But here it is, finally! I'll call it my Christmas gift to all you guys, even if it is a day late.

* * *

Finding Her Serenity

Chapter Three: The Lioness

"What the heck was that?!" Eliza yelled after she was thrown into the wall from the power of the crash.

"I don't know." Michael said as he managed to stand up with the ship still rocking. He pressed the button next to him on the wall. "John, what was that?"

Eliza rushed over in order to hear. "An Old Alliance ship is behind us. They're firing again. You might want to hold on to-"

Serenity rocked again sending Eliza and Michael to the floor. While they struggled to get up, John kicked the engine into high gear and put as much distance between Serenity and the hostile ship as he possibly could, as fast as he could.

By now everyone was up and ready. Michael ran to the engine room as soon as he could. Eliza and Taylor joined John in the cockpit to see what they were up against. Alex prepared the infirmary in case of any not-needed accidents. Ruth and Jules waited anxiously to see if and were they would be needed.

"What are they doing?" Elizabeth asked as she leaned over John's chair to see what he was doing. Taylor took the copilots chair and strapped himself in.

John had enough to deal with without answering fairly stupid questions. "They're firing at us! What did you think they were doing?! Throwing water balloons?"

Another impact rocked the ship and Elizabeth held on tight to John's chair to keep from falling. "Well then fire back!" She ordered.

"What do you think I'm doing?" John yelled back, his patience level diving dangerously low as he fired at the older ship behind them. Even as he fired he continued to accelerate away from the ship, trying to leave it behind in Serenity's golden wake.

"They're still coming!" Taylor called from his seat.

_'Of course they are,'_ Elizabeth thought. _'Heaven forbid they leave us alone in our own corner of space.'_

The Old Alliance vessel continued to advance quickly. Elizabeth saw on the monitor that the ship had been modified to fit the twenty-third century, much like Serenity had been.

"What kind of ship was that originally?" she yelled into John's ear. He cringed from the noise before answering the question.

"It looks like it was an old Ant Lion. Why? The re-modifications have plugged the holes in the armor and the newer engine will let it keep up with us _and_ it's had stronger fire power, not to mention its original pincers and gravity well."

"Right now I'm more worried about their fancy new cannon than I am about their old namesakes." Taylor added.

"But the creators have never moved the fuel cells from under the wing, so fire there." She shouted just as the other ship fired and everything went black in the cockpit. Elizabeth waited for the emergency lights to turn on, but the room stayed inky black. "What was that?" She whispered.

"An EM pulse." John answered quietly. Eliza grimaced; the electromagnetic pulse had done exactly what it was supposed to do. All of Serenity's electrical equipment had been knocked out by the wave. She was dead in space.

Elizabeth swore creatively in Chinese. "Get our weapons system back online." She told her pilots. "Then fire under the right wing where it joins with the body of the ship."

Taylor recognized his friend's no nonsense mood and dropped any sign of his usual humor. "Yes ma'am, sir." Well, almost all sign. "Just give us a minute." Taylor said shortly as he and John did their best to wake up the sleeping Firefly. Elizabeth watched as the rust colored Ant Lion crept forward in agonizing slow motion. She hated times like these where it felt like the only thing she could do was sit and watch others decide her next action for her.

Just when Elizabeth felt that inevitable scream of helplessness rising in her throat, a handful of lights winked into life. She let out the would-be scream in a whoosh of air.

"Our firing systems are back online." Taylor reported.

"Okay." Elizabeth said as she leaned on the back of John's chair. "Fire when their in range." John nodded in understanding.

The Ant Lion was still creeping toward them, unaware that their prey was now able to defend itself.

"C'mon you slowpoke, shuffle into my crosshairs already." John muttered impatiently, making Elizabeth smile. It was nice to know that she was not the only one who felt that way.

There was a small 'beep' that filled the room, cutting the silence in half. "There you are." John said to himself as he pulled the trigger, causing a gaping hole appear under the attacker's wing. A second, larger, explosion quickly followed the first, sending the good sized ship reeling back. Eliza watched as bits and pieces of debris floated almost peacefully in front of Serenity's clear viewing pane.

"Well, I don't think their much of a threat anymore." John said proudly leaning back in his chair.

"Looks can be deceiving." Taylor said leaning forward. "What now Captain?" He asked looking over his shoulder at Elizabeth.

"We see what they want. You, me, Jules, and Alex are going to go have a talk with whoever's in charge."

* * *

Elizabeth stood with Jules in Serenity's large hold. Taylor had gone to fetch Alex, so they were waiting for them to return. Elizabeth glanced over at the nineteen year old boy and noticed how pale and nervous he looked. 

"Are you okay?" She asked softly. "Would it be better if you stayed here?"

He swallowed nervously then smiled shakily at her. It did not reassure her one bit. Elizabeth knew very little about Jules's life before she had met him roughly five and a half years back, shortly after she began flying Serenity, if only because he didn't remember himself. For him, his life had begun when he was found by a group of Sheppard's on a small moon that rested on the outer rim of known space. He had never been sure of how he had gotten there, but he did have a suspicion, and a very nasty one at that. He had told Eliza everything he could remember and suspected and all of it chilled her to the bone.

"I'll be okay." He said quietly as Alex and Taylor entered the room and Elizabeth nodded in understanding.

"Do we know what we're dealing with? How many there are? Who are they?" Alex asked as he accepted the special tranquilizer gun Taylor offered him. Elizabeth noticed that the also had his medical bag in his other hand.

"There are nine onboard." Jules answered unexpectedly. "Three are in the cockpit, two are in the engine room, two are in the separate gunneries, and one has been injured and is being taken care of by the last crew member. They're an Old Alliance scouting party, but I think they have come to retrieve something instead of just watch over it." Jules looked up from what he was doing and saw the astonishment painted on Taylor and Alex's faces. He turned red and quickly looked back down. He hadn't told anyone but Eliza the whole truth and, usually, he tried to avoid doing anything that made it easier for the others to guess that there was something different about him. However, considering the circumstances, he thought it was better to chance looking like a freak.

Elizabeth was still thinking about what Jules had just told her. "Okay." She said thoughtfully. "Are any coming here?"

Jules shook his head. "Yes, it won't be long until someone comes."

"Okay then," Eliza said, deep in thought. "Here's what we do."

* * *

First mate of the Old Alliance scout ship the Lioness, Terrance Nelson, ran from the gun turret as quickly and as silently as he could towards the door that now connected his ship with the antique Firefly called Serenity. Following a few steps behind him was the Lioness' computer specialist, Jean Lee. They reached the entrance slightly out of breath and saw that the room was still empty. 

_"Good."_ Terrance thought as he and Jean moved furtively into the room and just as quietly ran to each side of the door frame that protruded from the wall. Since they did not know how much time they had until the Firefly crew boarded them, they hastily took their places and did their best to keep themselves from view.

As Terrance slid back behind the side of the door, he felt the muzzle of a gun being prodded in between his shoulder blades.

"Drop your weapon." A hard voice came from the shadows behind him. Very slowly, Terrance placed his gun on the floor and held up his hands away from his body.

"Move forward." The voice instructed and, seeing as how dying ruined most of his future plans, he did as he was told. When he cleared the side of the door, he saw out of the corner of his eye that a young fair haired man had a gun at Jean's back and was leading her forward as well.

"Take us to your captain." Said the voice behind Terrance, and when neither he nor Jean moved, it added a commanding, "Now!" Silently, Terrance started walking with Jean quickly catching up. Neither of them noticed the two other people move swiftly and silently down the hall towards the engine room.

When Terrance and Jean entered the cockpit with their captors, they saw that Captain Joseph Arling and the two pilots, Walter Lewis and Penelope Scotts, sat with their backs facing the door as they tried to fix as much damage as they could in order to protect themselves. None of them turned around, however, when the four people entered. Silently, the boy, he couldn't be more then twenty, who had followed Jean, took out another gun from somewhere and aimed it at Terrance. Then all three of them watched as the other boarder from the Firefly, who Terrance just now saw was a blonde haired woman of medium build with vivid green eyes also took out a second gun and pointed both at Captain Arling and the pilots.

"Step away from the controls and keep your hands where I can see them." Her voice rang through the cockpit, filling the room and commanding attention. Slowly, both the captain and the pilots raised their hands and turned to face their captor.

* * *

Alex and Taylor ran down the corridor following the path that Jules had outlined for them. Soon they reached the half open door that led to one of the crew's quarters. As they got closer, they heard a soft, ripping sound, like cloth tearing. As they got closer to the open door that the sound was coming from, they also were able to make out an incessant muttering that at first sounded like utter nonsense to both men. 

Then Alex realized that the woman, it was a woman's voice that was coming through the partly open door frame, was steadily repeating a series of aphorisms that all med schools in Old Alliance space taught their students. The sayings were used to help the students to remember their lessons, especially in stressful situations. Alex knew very well that the newly graduated students repeated them more then most so they wouldn't botch whatever job they had gotten after their extensive schooling.

'_O.A. fish,'_ Alex told Taylor using the common hand signs that Eliza and Taylor had taught all members of Serenity so that they could be helpful whenever things went wrong.

Taylor nodded in acknowledgement and then motioned for Alex to wait outside the door until Taylor gave him the thumbs up. Alex consented and backed against the wall to watch and wait.

Serenity's second in command quickly charged into the room and Alex heard the med give a little shriek before Taylor silenced her. The sound of struggling was briefly heard through the opening and then with a small crash, everything went quiet again. Alex looked around the corridor to make sure that no one else had heard the noise. Jules had said that nearly half the crew was on the other side of the ship, but there was still a chance that they're search had already spread as far as their present location.

Fortunately, the hall was clear and Alex entered the room as soon as he heard Taylor's signal.

Alex had been right about the doctor. She was young, probably in her early twenties, and she wore the dark blue uniform with white insignia that signified her role as the ships junior medic. Next to her lay the senior medic, judging from his nearly identical uniform. He was pale with pain from the injury in his side. Most likely it had been caused by the double explosion that had sent sharp shards of metal and plastic flying. Given their circumstance, the female med had managed to care for her superior well. She had managed to stop most of the bleeding and had placed a stitch patch over it. Most likely the square of fabric would hold until they could get the elder man to a real clinic to have real stitches replace the faux ones that the patch held.

"Very good for someone with little experience." Alex told her as he knelt next to her patient to examine her work. He had halfway turned to face her when a familiar hiss snapped nearby him and Serenity's doctor felt a sharp prick in his lower arm.

He and Taylor both realized at the same time that the old injured man was not as fogged as he pretended to be. Taylor stepped forward to yank his ship mate away before the sedative the doctor had stabbed him with began to take affect, but the young woman swept his feet out from under him with a well placed kick. Taylor fell hard and cracked his head against a box that had skidded across the floor along with the rest of the debris. With both intruders unconscious, the young woman helped her patient out of the room and down the hall toward the front of the ship.

* * *

Jules was beginning to feel dizzy. He wasn't sure how much longer he could stay in the room with captain of the Lioness. The man didn't stop, didn't stop thinking. It was like wading through a pond full of thick syrup. It weighed you down till you were moving as fast as an Earth that was snail. It stuck and clung to you, making you heavier with it self. He couldn't take it anymore. It was weighing him down to much to look through it. He couldn't…he wouldn't… 

Whack! Jules felt the pain as if it had been his own. Taylor had just been hurt and if Taylor was in trouble, then so was Alex.

Jules tried to hurry through the syrup so that he could find what he needed and get back to Serenity with Eliza. The captain was talking to her peer, exchanging ridicule of one sort or another; Jules didn't listen enough to know.

He had to hurry. He didn't know why, but Jules knew that the straight backed man in front of him had to hurry. They wouldn't be pleased if he didn't. The higher ups needed whatever it was that was sitting on board Serenity and the Lioness's captain had to fetch it soon. He didn't know what the box was or what was inside it, but that was beside the point. All that mattered was that Captain Arling had to receive the credit for returning the crate.

Jules couldn't take it anymore. He pulled back his concentration and focused on his immediate surroundings. He met Eliza's questioning glance and gave her a slight, almost imperceptible nod.

She didn't respond. Instead she smiled at Captain Arling and smiled harshly.

"Well Captain, thank you for your cooperation but I'm afraid we must be going now." She said backing towards the door, Jules following her lead.

"I'm sorry to hear that Captain Tam. I am also most equally sorry to tell you that I will have to keep you from doing so."

The door opened in a whoosh of air as Eliza continued to back up. "That is a pity." She said, thinking it was only an empty threat.

But Jules caught the slight twitch of movement beyond the door.

"Captain!" He shouted quickly aiming at the woman wearing medical blues who was about to put a bullet through Eliza's head. However her arms were shaking to bad to aim properly, a testament to her inexperience in the black, and she missed Eliza by several feet.

Meanwhile, the three previously captured crew members behind both her and Jules had taken advantage of the distraction and were drawing their weapons.

Jules realized that he and his captain were trapped with no hope of help considering that something else had happened to Taylor and Alex. They were all going to die unless something changed the balance of power, and quick.

For a moment, all three groups were still. The new woman was still shaking, but the grey haired man next to her held his arm steady despite the large gash in his side. Captain Arling and the two pilots had also trained their weapons on the two intruders while Jules had followed Eliza's example and had spread his arms in a cross so that one gun was aimed at each side.

Then the stillness shattered as the lady doctor's finger slipped and her firearm went off with a bone shattering bang. Amazingly, she had missed again, but the score of other arms would not and as the fatal projectiles flew towards the two boarders, Jules felt a familiar rush of blood in his ears.

Then everything went black.

* * *

There it is. What could be the matter with Jules? What does the Old Alliance want with Serenity and her crew? And what in the verse could be in that crate?! 

Well you all will just have to find out later. (I say you guys becuase I already know. I bet it would scare you if I didn't.)

See you later. (And hopefully it won't be another ten months)


	4. Chapter 4: Suspicion

There, that wait wasn't nearly so bad. Please review!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Although I wish Serenity was mine. She is such a beautiful ship!

* * *

Finding Her Serenity

Chapter Four: Suspicion

Oh God his head hurt.

Taylor opened his eyes. The room was spinning around him and he wasn't sure if it was because the ship was still lurching from the earlier explosions (or maybe even new ones) or if he had hurt his head bad enough to give himself a concussion or something.

But then again, Taylor was not the doctor. He had no idea –

Wait a minute, Taylor thought as he tired opening his eyes again. Alex had been with him, so where was he now?

Taylor's head felt as if it had turned to some heavy substance like, what was the old earth saying? Sticks? No, stones? No, bricks? Bricks! That was it; his head felt like it was full of red rocks.

That did not sound right either, but by now, Taylor had managed to get off the floor. His head still hurt like someone had tried to crack it open like an egg and have scrambled brains for their breakfast, but his dizziness had faded from oh-my-gosh-why-is-everything-blurring-together to the feeling most people get when they spin around in circles too long.

"Alex." Taylor whispered as he gave the other man an unsteady shove. Then he remembered that the wounded medic they had found had given the older Tam a sedative that had knocked Alex out cold.

Well scrap. Taylor's bewildered brain thought. Now what?

"JOSEPH JULES CONRAD!!" A strong familiar voice echoed throughout the ship.

Great, Taylor thought, Eliza and Jules were in trouble. Usually it would Taylor's job to save her with whatever he had on hand at that time. Like when she was trapped on that dinky planet in the borderlands between the two Alliances and all he had was a pole, some toothpicks, and a little Scottish terrier that refused to shut up.

If only he had that noise box with legs now, he thought to himself as he got a shoulder underneath the unconscious doctor and made his way as quickly as he could toward the cockpit where his captain was in trouble. Again.

* * *

"Joseph Jules Conrad." Eliza said firmly, but much more quietly then the first time. She had his attention, now she just needed to make him listen.

"Put Arling down." She spoke in her best captain's voice and stood at attention the way she had done when she was still a part of the New Alliance military forces. Jules stared blankly back at her, his pupils had swollen until there was only the faintest glimmer of white showing around the black.

Eliza had always thought that little part of Jules 'lost time' was down right creepy, but considering the circumstances, Eliza pushed past her crew mates owl like eyes and focused on getting the boy to turn back to normal.

"Jules," She said even more softly in a tone that most people used to try and sooth people who were either out of control or mad. "I need you to put down the captain so we can get back to Serenity." Jules cocked his head very slowly, as if her words were slowly sinking into his mind for processing.

Very, very slowly, Jules lowered Arling from the original foot and a half distance from the ground he had been dangling from until his boots touched the steel floor. Arling, being a smart man, did not move or speak as the strange young man placed him back on the floor and slowly unclasped his hand from around the captain's shirt collar.

"Back up very slowly Arling." Captain Tam instructed her counterpart with a hard voice and quite grudgingly he did so. He never took his eyes off the boy while he did so. His little fit had just proven to Arling that there was something not just off, but wrong about the boy. Not only had his face gone as blank as a clay mask but he had started to act like one of the new androids that had been given a human skin. It didn't help that, what had Captain Tam called him? Jules? It didn't help that Jules had lifted him nearly two feet off the ground, something a man of his stature shouldn't have been able to do. The best anyone could say about his build was wiry, and that seemed to be a stretch. The boy should not have been able to lift the heavy set man more then a couple inches off the ground.

There was no denying it anymore, Arling thought as Captain Tam led a slowly awakening Jules back to their ship, this boy was almost certainly Old Alliance material.

"Sir?" Nelson said from his usual place behind his left shoulder. "The Firefly is retreating. Should we go after them?"

Arling turned back to face the view port as Serenity shot away from the Lioness, her afterglow burning pale yellow in the black.

"No," He turned back to his crew with his usual stern look and thought about what they should do now. "We should report what has happened to Station 12."

"Yes sir." Nelson said firmly and then gave the rest of the crew their instructions before returning to his captain's side.

"Station 12, sir, are you sure?" Nelson asked quietly.

"Yes Nelson, I'm sure. That boy, in case you didn't notice it your self, is stolen O. A. property. Considering priorities, I think it would be best if Station 12 was made aware of his existence immediately."

"Of course sir." Nelson agreed; glad that the Lioness would no longer be stagnating as she was forced to watch the decaying Firefly. He had just turned away in order to ensure that the rest of the crew was following orders when Capt. Arling called him back.

"Nelson, also make sure that our insider knows of this turn of events." He said never turning away from the viewing pane.

Nelson smiled grimly. "Yes, sir." He said, and then quickly walked away.

* * *

"Jules, can you hear me?" Eliza spoke for his ears only. Jules shook his head like he was trying to clear it.

"Jules, can you-" She started to repeat herself.

"Yes," he said groggily. "Yes, I can hear you, but I can't remember what-where-"

Eliza held up her hand and he stopped talking. She had only seen him like this twice before. The only way she could describe it was like he was waking up from a horrific nightmare. He would be groggy at first and then his head would start to hurt.

"What's the last thing you remember?" Eliza asked quietly as Ruth played nurse for Alex and Taylor a few paces away.

"We had just boarded, no, you and I were about to be slaughtered by half the crew in the cockpit."

"And then what?" She seemed tense as she waited as patiently as she could for Jules to fill in his lost time.

"I don't know." He sounded slightly panicky now. "Eliza, what did I do?" He could tell from her exhausted sigh that it had not been good, whatever it was.

Finally she spit it out. "After you took out half the crew, you lifted the captain nearly a foot and a half off the floor with one hand. Shortly after that we left."

Now it was Jules's turn to sigh. "Did I-" He swallowed hard as if he was afraid to continue. "Did I...injure anyone?"

_Did I kill anyone?_ Was the unspoken question and Eliza knew that Jules was terrified of when someone would answer yes.

"No," She told him truthfully. He let out a gasp of air in relief before she went on. "I think you may have given a couple of them mild concussions, but we'll just call that even."

"Even?" Jules wondered who had been hurt for there to be an even.

"Taylor smacked his head on some debris when the female medic swept his feet out from under him after Alex was stuck with a sedative by her superior. Fortunately they'll both be okay. At least Ruth's pretty sure that they'll both be okay, we won't know for positive until Alex wakes up, which should be in a little while. But until then they just need some rest, not that Alex really has any say in the matter," She gave a slight smile despite their surely unpleasant circumstance. "That includes you by the way. You probably need more rest then the others anyway." She patted his arm reassuringly then walked over to her sister, who was sitting on the crate Eliza had gotten on Atlantis.

"Ruthie?" Taylor heard her say as he started to walk back to his room. "Are you okay?"

* * *

She struggled to wake up. But it was like swimming through syrup. She was so heavy. Her little toes felt like they were made of iron and her legs felt like motionless cylinders of steel. She was sure that something was weighing her chest down, making it hard to breath. She was also sure that her heavy chest would have stopped sucking in air if it wasn't for the oxygen mask settled tight against her nose and mouth. Her arms must have been attached to diving weights because when she tried to lift them, she barely managed to twitch one of her fingers.

She stopped trying to move and dim voices began to filter through the thick metal casing surrounding her and into her fogged brain.

"Ruthie?" The woman's voice was muffled, making it impossible to tell if she had ever heard the voice before. "What's the matter Ruthie?"

Another woman, Ruthie she presumed, answered the first. "Nothing," Her voice cracked as if she had been crying. "It's just, nothing,"

She heard movement, as if the first woman had taken the other's shoulders, before the other woman spoke again.

"Ruth, what's wrong?"

The second woman started crying and they both retreated out of hearing, leaving her alone in the thick heavy silence once more. She tried hard to stay awake, she needed to wake up, but in the end sleep proved too much for her and she fell into the dark abyss once more.

* * *

"Ruthie," Eliza whispered taking her sisters shoulders once more so she could look into Ruth's red puffy eyes as the distraught woman sat down on the edge of the examination bed in the clinic. "Ruthie, what's the matter?"

Ruth struggled to get herself under control as her older sister waited patiently for her to explain.

Ruth looked up at Eliza and opened her mouth to say something, but sobbed instead and had to look away. Eliza didn't say anything as she waited and rubbed her little sister's back, hoping it would help soothe her.

Finally Ruth drew in a deep breath and held it briefly before letting it out slowly. She grasped her sister's hand tightly before opening her mouth again.

"Eliza I-oh," She stopped again as Cassiopeia leaped lightly into her warm lap and purred comfortingly. "Hello kitty." Ruth said as she distractedly began to rub the white cat's soft cheeks and ears.

Eliza waited silently for Ruth to start speaking again, but she seemed to have forgotten what she was going to say as she scratched Serenity's spoiled cat. She stared off into the distance as if searching for the right words as Cassiopeia purred and drooled in her lap, wallowing in the affection.

"Ruth?" Eliza finally said interrupting Ruth's thoughts. "What is it?"

Ruth jerked back to the present as a piece of her light yellow hair escaped the confinement of her heavily adorned hairpins. The pins were one of the few things Ruth had let herself keep from the time when she had intended to become a Companion, like her several times great grandmother. Fortunately, or at least Eliza thought so, Ruth's marriage to Alex had put a halt to that line of thought.

Eliza dragged her attention back from the disaster her sister's life would have been if she had actually followed in Inara's footsteps as Ruth squeezed her hand again as a smile lit up her smooth face as new tears glistened in the corners of her blue-green eyes.

"Eliza," Ruth said, not bothering to repress her excitement any longer. "I'm pregnant."

It took a moment for Eliza to process this, and then it took another to try and figure out why Ruth was crying when Eliza knew that she wanted children.

But for some reason one plus one did not equal two. "Ruth that's wonderful. But why are you crying?" Eliza asked genuinely confused.

Ruth's smile faded as new tears gathered in her eyes. "I'm scared." She admitted. "I don't think I could raise a child all by myself and if Alex-" Her words became nearly incomprehensible again as she imagined her husbands death again. Eliza wrapped her arms around her younger sister and rocked her back and forth like she used to when they were younger and their mother was too busy working to comfort them. She wished that Alex was awake if only so he would not look like he was dead.

Ruth calmed down again, hopefully for good this time. Eliza waited as Ruth finished sniffing and smoothed her clothes and hair back into order. "I'm sorry." She said as she wiped her eyes. "I'm sorry, I just, saw him there and," Ruth wiped her eyes again and looked up at her sister. "I think I just freaked out."

Cassiopeia's little silver bell rang on her collar as she shook her head as she tried to shake off the salt water Ruth had left on her fur. Ruth laughed a very little, making Eliza feel better as well as herself.

"I suppose that means you agree with me Highness?" Ruth said using the crew's favorite nickname for Serenity's pampered cat. Ruth smiled sweetly down at the cat and Eliza saw the excitement and happiness reenter her sister's ocean colored eyes as the panic faded.

Ruth would be a good mother. Eliza had always believed that. Back home on the small planet of Greenleaf, which consequently was more dirt colored than green, she had always been the one looking out for Eliza and Taylor, even though most of the time they were the ones that made sure she was safe. Somehow, over the two hundred years since the New Alliance had come to power, the Old Alliance had managed to keep control of a few semi-important worlds, like Greenleaf with her heavy iron deposits. Ruth, Eliza, and Taylor had all grown up on the same ball of metal-laced rock with the same harsh Old Alliance soldiers giving them orders and halting any attempt they made to get away or build a better life then the one they had. Most people had hated the O. A. bullies, which was probably why they had tolerated Eliza and Taylor's (and sometimes Ruth's) pranks on the blue uniformed men and women.

Eliza had always been the brains; she was smart and everybody knew it. Even the guards learned it after a time. They also figured out that where Eliza went, Taylor and Ruth were sure to follow eventually. Taylor usually ended up being an accomplice more often then Ruth, who usually stayed home and did her chores and school work like a good girl. Nevertheless, she was always there when it mattered, like when her friends needed a good alibi or distraction for their bigger stunts.

A knock on the door made both sisters look up. Taylor stood in the doorway wearing his usual smile. "Alex is up. He went to your room to get some rest." He said to Ruth, who immediately left the room. "John and Michael say we need to pick up something or other for Serenity. Apparently, the first couple of shots from the Lioness left more than scorch marks on our hull."

Eliza nodded. "Okay, find the nearest world that has what we need." She instructed. Taylor nodded and headed towards the cockpit while Eliza wandered down to the engine room where Michael probably was.

Eliza watched her husband work as steam shot from a dozen different pipes and holes. He blocked off some and let others vent as he crossed the small cluttered room half a dozen times in some apparent pattern that Eliza was not able to discern. He continued to fly around the room, patching up Serenity's heart until they were able to get whatever parts she needed to work properly, or at least as properly as she ever did. Eventually he stopped, having done all he could, and sat down next to Eliza.

"How's Ruth?" He asked eyeing a piece of tape that looked like it was going to slide right off its pipe because of all the condensation the steam had created.

"Good," Eliza said happily as she leaned onto Michael's shoulder. "She's going to have a baby."

She could hear Michael's smile as he put his arms around her. "How very exciting for them." He said not really wanting to talk about anyone else at the moment, even his brother or his sister in law.

Eliza understood; Ruth and Alex would have all their attention later, but right now, it was time for them.

* * *

With disgust, the infiltrator turned off the small camera and listening device he had planted in the engine room. The captain and the mechanic were not going to say anything more of use and he was not the kind that wanted to know what happened behind closed doors. Casually the traitor leaned back in his chair in his private quarters and reviewed what he had learned so far about Captain Tam and her loyal crew.

The sister was pregnant, that could be useful if a hostage was needed. But then again, the crew was so close that anyone could be used as a decent hostage.

Quite honestly, the thought of their "family" sickened him. So loyal, so close together, so loving. He could not stand it. This was no way to run a ship, even if half of the crew was family, either by blood or by marriage.

The infiltrator turned his mind away from the loving family environment he was stuck in for the moment and thought about the earlier fight. What a rush! What a supreme explosion of power! He had felt nothing like it before in his entire life and right now he wanted nothing more then to feel it again. To bring back the rush of amazing power the fight on the Lioness had brought with it and find some way to maintain it.

Maybe then he would be able to put loyal and loving Captain Tam and her crew back in their proper place.

* * *

The syrup enfolded her, trying to rock her back to sleep, but she refused to be rocked. She refused to be consoled. She screamed into her mask, but no sound came out. The heavy thing on her chest shifted, like a cat in a patch of sun, but did not move off of her chest.

"No! No! Do not trust him!" She tried to scream again, but if she made any sound it did not get past the thick metal plates that had encased her for more then two centuries. Nothing could get in, she had planned it that way, but nothing could get out either.

"He's watching you!" She screamed in her head. "He's planning against you! He'll kill you. Get away get away!"

She had to do something. She had finally made it back home and now someone was going to destroy it as it sat under her feet. She could not let him do that. She would not let him do that. This was her home and her family and she was going to protect it, but for Serenity's sake she had to get out first!

* * *

Three days later, Serenity pulled into Ita without any further incidents. The moon's main business was salvage, meaning there were many places for Michael to look for working parts. It also meant that it would probably take a few tries to find what they needed in the jumble of scrap and junk. Between the three of them, Eliza, Taylor, and Michael agreed that the most they could spend on Ita was four days. Hopefully, they would find what they needed and have it installed before then.

But as long as they were on Ita, Eliza saw no reason not to relax a little, and as far as salvage moons went, Ita was good for relaxing on. The moon had natural hot springs underground that showed up as geysers on the surface. Eliza and Ruth had already planned to spend a few hours lounging in the warm water that afternoon.

Eliza had grabbed her bathing suit and a change of clothes and was heading towards her sister's room when she noticed that the sliding door that led to Jules's private rooms was standing half-open, as if someone had left in a hurry. She went to close the door, thinking more about bubbling water then why the very private Jules would have left his door open, when a short, chopped up piece of paper caught her attention. Eliza picked it up off the small table next to Jules's bed and read the short message in confusion.

At first, it seemed to be just a heap of letters that refused to make sense, but as old code classes came back to her, Eliza realized she was looking at a coded message that listed Serenity's planned stops, expected cargo, and crew's wellbeing, specifically Ruth's.

Eliza looked around her, shocked as she realized that she was carrying an Old Alliance spy.

And the evidence pointed towards Jules.


	5. Chapter 5: The Mole

Hey, I don't know how long its been since I put up chapter four, but guess what? I'm in college now. Like literally right now. I'm sitting in my new dorm as I type. I suppose the only reason I bring this up is because I have no idea what to expect so I have no idea when I will be able to write next. But I will write. I'm not dropping my stories because of school. Anyway, I hope you like the chapter and I'll talk to you later.

* * *

Finding Her Serenity

Chapter Five: The Mole

Eliza found Jules stacking crates against the far wall in a vain attempt to organize the crate littered cargo hold.

"What's this?" She demanded quietly but forcefully holding up the coded list so Jules could see.

Jules set the small box of fish from Atlantis that still needed delivering on top of Eliza's bigger mystery package and removed his thick gloves before taking the ragged piece of paper from Eliza.

"Well," He said after studying the message for a moment. "It appears to be a list of information about Serenity written in a code based off of the book The Forming of the Alliance which is fairly popular among those who are still loyal to the Old Alliance." He shrugged, not really understanding what the Captain wanted.

Captain Tam glared at him and Jules shuddered wondering what in the 'verse he could have done that would have made her so mad. She took a slow, threatening step towards him before finding and holding his gray gaze.

"What was it doing in your room?"

Jules was shocked into silence. How could she think he was Old Alliance? If anyone on board could understand his past experience with the corrupted government, Eliza should-

A sharp pain caught his attention as Eliza flicked the back of his hand with her index finger. Jules did not move in case the real spy was watching them and kept his look of horror frozen to his face as Eliza continued to glare.

"I - I -"Jules stuttered trying to act innocent yet self incriminating at the same time.

"I want you off my ship within the next hour or I swear I will put a bullet in your head, do you understand?"

If Jules had not known she was lying, he would have been shaking in his boots. Actually, he thought as he nodded and left to gather his things, he was shaking anyway.

Quickly, still acting like a frightened little rabbit, Jules gathered what little personal possessions he had. He was not surprised to see Taylor watching him when he turned to leave. Of course Eliza would not leave him alone if she really thought he was a spy and until they caught the real spy he was the scapegoat.

Jules hefted his faded green backpack over one shoulder and hung his shoes, only worn twice in almost as many years, on his other shoulder by their tied together laces. He passed by Taylor ignoring him as he headed towards Serenity's main door.

"Be back in before dark." Jules almost did not hear the older man's instructions as he opened the door and sounds of Ita's populace invaded Serenity's hold.

Jules did not nod. Did not give any sign he had heard Taylor at all as he walked out the door for an afternoon of seeing and being seen by whoever decided to take an interest. He would ask around for a ride, maybe a place to stay, letting the people of Ita see him so that it anyone asked, he had gotten on a passenger ship somewhere or was renting a room on the other side of town.

Really he would be on Serenity, in the hidden room that one of her former owners had used for smuggling or some other equally illegal thing. Now it was just another tiny room that almost everybody who had spent any significant length of time on Serenity knew about. Meaning everybody except their mole.

* * *

"Idiot." Eliza muttered as she and Ruth tried to relax in one of _The Geyser_'s private hot springs. Eliza plunged into the steamy water sinking until the water was just beneath her nose while Ruth stuck her legs in and slowly got used to the high temperature.

"Don't complain so much." Ruth told her sister. "You should be glad that John was stupid enough to try and make us turn on each other."

"Probably." Eliza said lifting her head and neck out of the hot water. "But how can he be so _stupid_?" She said in disgust and disbelief as she let her head loll back against the water worn rock that held the spring.

Ruth just shrugged before slowly lowering herself into the hot water. Eliza watched in amusement as her sister kept stopping and hissing as she tried to settle into the water.

"Why does it have to be so hot?" She asked as she finally got most of her body underwater.

Eliza laughed. "It's called a hot spring for a reason Ruth." She said still smiling.

Ruth flicked water at Eliza, missing her miserably. "Oh shut up." She told her leaning her head back against the side of the pool as well.

They both lapsed into silence, letting the heat relax them, making them easy and lethargic.

Ten minutes later Eliza pulled herself out of the pool with a groan. Ruth watched with concern as her sister crawled over to the rock wall that sat about a foot away from the hot water and leaned her back and head against the cool surface.

"Do you feel sick again?" Ruth asked as she pulled herself out of the water as well.

"It just got too hot is all." Eliza tried to reassure her, but her voice was weak which sapped all the reassurance out of her words.

Ruth would not have believed her even if she had been lying well. "That's why you're all pale instead of flushed right? It got too hot? If you don't do something about this nausea soon I'm going to tell Michael at the very least."

Eliza waved her hand to dismiss the issue as unimportant. "It's just a bug, Michael doesn't need to know; he'll only worry."

"Well someone has to worry about you." Ruth huffed as she scooted closer to her sister.

Eliza looked over at the younger woman. "Excuse me," She said her own agitation growing. "You talk like you don't worry at all when some days I swear that's all you do."

"Yes," Ruth admitted. "But Michael's the one that can actually make you _do _something about whatever it is he's worried about."

Eliza sighed angrily in recognition of the truth.

"How bout this," Ruth said after a moment of thoughtful silence. "I won't tell Michael if you let Alex figure out what's wrong."

"I told you," Eliza said, honestly cross by now. "It's just a bug."

Ruth rolled her eyes. "Well just in case it isn't a bug." She persisted.

Eliza crossed her arms over her chest and looked the other way, acting more like a moody little kid than an adult.

"Lizaaaa." Ruth said speaking to Eliza like a child until she decided to act her age.

"Alright fine!" Eliza snapped.

Ruth only smiled and got back in the pool and waited for her sister to cheer up and join her.

* * *

That evening, Michael and Eliza sat in bed talking. Alex had looked at Eliza earlier that afternoon after the girls had gotten back from _The Geyser_, so Ruth had kept her mouth shut about Eliza's "bug" around Michael.

"So what are you going to do about John?" Michael asked.

Eliza sighed and leaned her head back against the fairly plain head board. "I'm not sure yet, we've found all of his bugs I'm sure, but he may try and plant new ones soon so we'll have to watch out for that. That's all we need to do actually, watch him."

Michael nodded. "Okay, but what do you think he wants?" He asked lying down and propping his head up so he could look at Eliza.

Eliza shrugged. "That's what I want to find out. I'm going to take a wild guess and say that Jules little display on the Lioness had something to do with it."

Michael actually frowned, a rare expression for him. "And his mysterious past yeah?"

Eliza sighed again and slid underneath the sheets. She rolled over to face Michael and propped her head up like him. "It's his life."

"And none of my business, I understand." Michael said honestly. "But that doesn't mean I'm not annoyed that you are the only other one who knows about his strange life."

Eliza smiled. "It's my ship. And I know everything about what happens on my ship."

"Most of the time." Michael clarified as he turned off the lamp and lay down as well.

Eliza did not answer that.

"So Jules is in the Cove yeah?" Michael asked quietly. Just because he did not like being kept ignorant did not mean he wanted to leave the boy behind. He was actually a decent kid who was able to pick up the slack around Serenity if need be. Besides, it was possible that John wanted Jules planet side so the O.A. could pick him up later.

"Yeah." Eliza said sleepily. He'll help look after our mole and undo whatever damage John might do to Serenity behind our backs."

"How do you know there's no one else hiding on board?" Michael asked. "Maybe there's some hidden mole we don't know about."

"I doubt it." Eliza said. "Jules would have noticed someone else by now or even Cassiopeia. You know she doesn't like strangers. She would've thrown a fit already."

Michael nodded and was quiet as he thought through the situation again, wondering if they had missed anything.

"Do you think that maybe we're just over thinking this?" He asked pulling Eliza back from the brink of sleep.

"What?" she asked, Michael's question not really penetrating her sleep fogged brain.

"What if John doesn't want Jules himself, he just wants him off the ship so that he can get something from us."

"That doesn't make sense." Eliza said. "There are still five of us versus the one of him. Besides, what in the world would he want from us? All we have on board are those stinking fish that we are getting rid of as soon as we leave this planet."

Michael shrugged. "He could easily get help. And maybe he wants whatever is in that crate."

"Crate?" Eliza wondered for a moment what the heck Michael was talking about before she remembered the strange crate that had been addressed to her that she had picked up with the reeking fish. "I suppose he could be after that." She admitted. "But since we don't know what's in it I can't be sure. Have you had a chance to scan it yet?"

"Yeah, much good that it did me. There's something interfering with the scanner inside so I can't see what's in it. However I got Alex to lend me the ultrasound. Whatever it is that's interfering with the scanner doesn't mess that much with the ultrasound so we could see a little, but we still weren't able to get a clear picture."

"So you don't know what's in it?"

"Not really, but I can tell you there isn't any weaponry of any kind in there if that makes you feel better."

Eliza sighed in frustration. "Stupid crate." She mumbled. "If that's what John wants he can take it as long as he tells me what's in it first. It's just a bunch of trouble if you ask me."

* * *

The thin liquid flowing through her was beginning to lose its effect. She was able to stay awake for an hour at least now. But that still did not help her move. The green goo surrounding her was impossibly heavy, making it incredibly hard for her to even lift her little finger.

And if she could not move, she could not get out, which was a problem.

She strained against the syrup, trying to lift her index finger high enough to push the magic button that would help set her free. She had built this tank all by herself; she knew every inch of the box that held her. She had even constructed the jelly that was helping her to live far beyond her normal life span. It was the perfect creation and she knew it, because she had built it.

But somehow she had not foreseen this problem. She had not expected the jelly to grow heavier with time. If she had she would have thought of a different way to reactivate the box's programming. But she had not, so the only way out was to push the stupid red button not an inch away from her hand.

A dim sound, after being picked up by her box's hibernating systems, filtered through the syrup.

"…we've found all of his bugs I'm…" The sound faded in and out as it echoed off the metal walls and halls of Serenity towards her.

She listened harder as if trying to hear the rest of the conversation by sheer will alone.

It did not work that well, but she heard enough to understand.

"…watch him…"

"…do you think he wants?"

Me! She thought wildly wishing they could hear her. He wants me! He'll tear you apart just to get to me.

"…that's what…to find out…guess…Jules little display…something to do with it."

Jules? Who was Jules? He could not have anything to do with this could he? Possibly. Could he have anything to do with her? Doubtfully. Did this mean that the rat had changed his objective?

She had to find out. And unless the rat decided to come down from his tall tower she probably was not going to find out unless she got out.

The words faded to background noise as she tried harder to push her escape button. She strained against the life prolonging syrup that was now keeping her prisoner, but it did not matter. She still could not push the button.

She let her arm relax and listened again for the noise as the captain and her husband continued talking.

"…how do…know…no one else…hiding…?"

"…doubt it…"

She could not help it. She laughed. No one else was hiding onboard, yeah right. There were at least three others hiding. The others were just lucky that the one who was walking around free liked them all so much.

"…just over thinking this?" The man's voice drifted back. She thought the woman must have answered but like most of the other words, her answer was lost on the way down. "…doesn't want Jules…just wants…off ship…can get…"

Get what? She cried wordlessly. It might have been her answer and she could not hear.

"…doesn't make sense…still five…versus…him. Besides what…he want from us? …onboard are those stinking…getting rid of…soon…"

She wanted to laugh again. It sounded as though Serenity was still captained by smugglers like Mal.

"…maybe he wants…crate." Suddenly she stopped laughing. Yes! They had it. He wanted the crate. They just had to stop him.

"…we don't know…in it…Have you…chance to scan…?"

She heard a faint disgruntled sound. "…much good…did me…something interfering…scanner…I can't see...Alex to lend…ultrasound so we could see…little, but…still weren't…clear picture." She smiled a tiny bit. It was nice to know that her little shield had held so long without her awake to help it.

Once again, the woman spoke too softly for her to hear what she said. "Not really…" The man answered. "…isn't any weaponry…" No she thought to herself, no weaponry, not the usual kind.

Finally she was able to hear the woman with hardly any trouble. "Stupid crate…just a bunch of trouble…"

Ha, she laughed, they did not know trouble if all it took was one mysterious box to mess them up.

* * *

Dun dun dun! John's a mole. Or an idiot. Or possibly both. Anyway, please review! You guys were doing so well up until the last chapter. I had at least one each time before that.


	6. Chapter 6: From Mole to Rat

Hello again! I hope you had an interesting April Fools Day, I saw people cover a car in sticky notes which was amazingly funny. Anyway, I feel bad for once again taking forever to write so in a day or two I am going to post Chapter Seven! It's already written but it's really short, especially compared to this chapter, because I hadn't planned to add that scene in. Well, I hope you like it, please remember to review.

* * *

Finding Her Serenity

Chapter Six: From Mole to Rat

Nearly two weeks later, John still appeared to be the upstanding pilot he wanted everyone to think he was, Jules was still stuck in the Cove, and the crate and its mysterious contents still sat in the corner of Serenity's cargo hold, seemingly innocuous.

Eliza was ready to snap.

She was tired of putting a pretty smile on every time she had to see the traitor's calm unsuspecting face. She was tired of having her friend and handyman trapped in a small 3x6 room that was barely tall enough for Jules to stand up in. Most of all she was tired of that stupid trouble making crate sitting on her ship.

Heck, she was just plain tired.

Despite common sense, it did not help her that she knew why she was so tired. In fact, her exhaustion tied in with the illness that just refused to go away, so she was not only weary but sick. She had gotten a little better when they had finally unloaded the reeking fish on Regina, but as Alex had predicted, the nausea had not left.

The annoyance of it all had Eliza exploding like a powder keg at any minor irritation.

Such as the primary buffer panel that had suddenly decided to stop working. Apparently Serenity still had an issue with the yard long panel two hundred years after she had bucked it off the first time.

"Michael!" Eliza nearly screamed as Serenity jerked and jolted underneath her feet nearly knocking her down the slanted stairs. Fortunately she only knocked her head on someone's shoulder as he caught her rather than the metal floor.

"I'm right here." Her husband said. "There's no need to shout."

Eliza tilted her head back to see Michael looking down at her, a slight frown making his eyebrows bunch together above his nose. His face was covered with grease and oil from the engine room and his hair stuck up at all angles.

Eliza suddenly wanted to kiss him.

"What?" Michael asked and Eliza noticed he still supported most of her weight.

She stood abruptly, smoothing her pants back into some semblance of order, trying to remember what she had been so mad over.

Serenity bucked again, helping to remind her captain that something was wrong.

"What happened to the primary buffer panel? I thought we just replaced that two months ago? Why's it causing problems?"

Michael sighed impatiently as he headed back to the engine room, Eliza following close behind. "I think that electromagnetic pulse from the Lioness short circuited something or other, but obviously we didn't catch it in time. Either that or the thing just died. We did buy it used and it was really, really old."

Eliza grumbled. She didn't like buying used parts, but Serenity was so old herself that most of the pieces she needed could only be found in junkyards and pawn shops.

"Is there any point in retrieving the dang thing?" She asked shortly.

Michael looked over at his wife, wondering what had her so on edge. He doubted she was this upset just because Serenity needed new parts again. She almost always needed new parts anyway. "No, probably not," He told her. "If the EM pulse fried it then having it fixed will cost about as much as buying another one and if it's just too old then all I can do is bury it."

Eliza mumbled something irritably and stomped over to the intercom on the opposite wall. "John!" She yelled after she smacked it on. "We need to stop and get a new panel as soon as possible." She flicked the box off again, not waiting for an answer. Then she plopped down on the corner bench, putting her head in hands as if she felt a headache coming on.

Michael finished what repairs he could and sat down next to her, putting a comforting hand on her back. "Are you okay Eliza? You've been pretty high strung lately. Is something else going I that I should know about?"

There was a loud sniff. "No," Eliza said, her voice sounding strained. "No I'm alright."

"Eliza are you crying?" He asked in disbelief. Eliza hardly ever cried and not over primary buffer panels. "What is it? What's wrong?" He asked worried as he wrapped her in a hug.

_"Traitor tears."_ Eliza thought miserably to herself, but let herself relax in the comfort of Michael's grip. She just shook her head though, unable to stop crying.

_"Captain," _John's voice crackled over the intercom. _"Just thought I'd let you know that Beaumonde is only about ten hours away, maybe a little more depending on how badly Serenity limps."_

Eliza stood and wiped away her remaining tears. "I'll tell you later." She told Michael quietly before smacking the intercom again. "That sounds fine to me." She told John, refusing to thank him. Then she left the room without another word, concentrating on watching where she put her feet rather then on whatever it was that had made her cry in the first place.

Michael shook his head as she swept out of the small, hot room. She could be so stubborn sometimes, but he would hold her to that promise, whether she liked it or not.

A loud piercing whistle suddenly rang out as one of the pipes above his head started shooting off steam. The mechanic shot to his feet and hurried to close to leak. He had a lot of work to do if Serenity planned to limp to Beaumonde at all.

********

Eliza prowled down the familiar halls of Serenity. Her head ached something fierce and she felt nauseas again, so in the best interest of her temper, and everyone else's sanity, she had decided to go and just take a nap. Maybe if nothing else it would get rid of her headache.

A woman's soft giggle echoed down the hall and Eliza stopped, wondering if she wanted to go any further. While she loved her sister and liked Alex as a brother, she did not like to catch them making out or whispering cutely to each other. Especially now, she already felt sick enough. Still, she refused to miss her nap and sleeping anywhere besides her bed would defeat the whole purpose of resting, so she took a steadying breath and continued determinedly down the hall to her room.

The door to her room sat just down the hall from the one that led to Alex and Ruth's. Eliza walked on, refusing to peek inside the open door on her way.

"I like Thomas." Ruth's quiet voice drifted out the door again, catching Eliza by surprise and making her freeze in mid-step. Who the heck was Thomas?

"Or Jonathan." Alex added.

Now Eliza felt confused. What in the world were they talking about?

"If we have a girl I want to name her Katrina after my mother." Ruth said sounding half asleep.

Oh, baby names, Eliza realized. It figured they were thinking about that already. She didn't know about Alex, but when she and Ruth were growing up on the small planet of Greenleaf, Ruth usually started planning out what she was going to buy people for Christmas in March. It could be highly annoying actually.

A small hot, furred body suddenly brushed up against Eliza's shins, surprising her and making her jump almost a foot in the air.

She looked around frantically for what she thought must have been a humongous furred bug, but only saw Cassiopeia, her dainty cat, staring up at her with her luminous golden eyes.

"Don't do that to me." She scolded the silvery cat to no effect. Cassiopeia only rubbed her head up against Eliza's legs again and began to purr.

"Alright, alright you stinker." Eliza said crouching down to stroke her cat.

"How are you doing Eliza?"

Eliza whirled around again wondering if maybe she should've worn her gun belt today after all, but saw only Alex standing there.

"Dang it you two quit sneaking up on me!" She whispered fiercely, her sore temper returning.

Alex ignored it. "Have you told him yet?" He asked instead.

Eliza rolled her eyes in frustration and shoved past him.

"Why don't you go back to discussing baby names with your wife?" She told him.

"Ruth's asleep and you haven't-" He didn't get very far with his accusation.

"No," Eliza cut him off sternly as she opened the door to her and Michael's room and stepped inside. "Not yet. Now do me a favor and mind your own business."

"He's my brother!" He nearly shouted.

"And it's my business!" Eliza didn't bother keeping her voice down.

The two glared at each other, each trying to stare down the other. Alex finally caved.

"Look, this is his business too Eliza and he deserve to know what's going on."

Eliza looked livid. "I know that!" She practically hissed at him. "And I'm going to tell him so cool your jets and quit pushing me." With that she spun on her heel and slid down the sides of the ladder, landing in her room and slapping the door command, making it clang shut in front of Alex.

Alex sighed and rubbed his face with his hands as if that could scrub away his problems. Quit pushing her, yeah right. Michael was the only one that could talk her into doing anything, especially when she didn't like the idea, and he was the one that she didn't want to tell. If nobody pushed her, Eliza would hide the truth until Michael found out for himself and Alex didn't even want to think about how _that_ scene would play out.

********

The bin of trash pulled down on John's arms, following the natural flow of gravity making his shoulders hurt. It figured he had to do chores when Taylor had the helm. He hustled down to the cargo deck as quickly as he could, wanting to set the heavy garbage down soon. Hopefully that would save him from future back problems.

Finally he reached his destination and set the basket down with a thump on the deck. He dusted his hands, absently looking around the room, for all the world looking like he had nothing else to do. Absentmindedly he walked around the room, eyeing one crate and fingering another until he stopped in front the largest one that sat unobtrusively in the corner. Personally John thought it was ugly, resembling a coffin with one end bigger than the other. It gave him the creeps, but if he was right, then his employers would be very happy indeed. They probably would already be happy, and John happily paid in full, if it hadn't been for those stupid O.A. scouts that had stuck their noses into his job affairs. Captain Tam would most likely have dumped the thing next time they docked, letting him pick it up with no fuss and no suspicions left behind, but she wasn't stupid. After the Lioness had attacked and they had found out what they were after, Tam had kept her eye on the crate, even getting Michael and Alex to search inside it with an ultrasound. Now it looked like he would have to do this the hard way.

John would have liked to know how they had found out that the Lioness had been after the crate in the first place, but after hearing the stories of Jules's fight in the cockpit, John had his theories.

He had thought for sure that the Old Alliance home frequency came from the coffin-box at first, but with the rumors of Jules miraculous attack, John no longer felt certain. The special signal he had picked up was most definitely the kind the Old Alliance used to search for their more…special commodities while avoiding detection by ordinary scanner. John had to admit that whoever had come up with the signal had gone beyond genius; the signal operated in such a way that it blended in with any and all surrounding machinery. The only way one could sniff the hidden signals out was with special scanners made and distributed solely by Old Alliance higher ups, like the one sitting in the special compartment in his trunk in his room. Brilliant.

"Found a lid yet?"

Years of experience managed to prevent John from spinning around and blasting the man that had just entered the room. Instead he replied quite calmly, "No, it's amazing really. There isn't even a seam between the body and the lid."

Michael snorted. "You're telling me. I searched for over an hour trying to find a way to open it and I still got nothing."

John somehow managed to force a smile at the younger man. When he had first met the man he had not liked him, but he had respected his skill with machinery. He had lost all that respect when he realized that the sandy brown haired man had married his employer, his captain, Elizabeth Reynolds. Bah, these people had no idea of proper working order on a ship.

"Maybe it's on a time trigger." John thought out loud. He had toyed with the idea for some time, but it still had too many flaws for him to believe it.

Michael just shrugged. "Maybe," He said as he searched the labels on a stack of boxes near the iron staircase.

John did not defend his position. Instead he ignored the other man and stalked up the stairs back towards the cockpit. He wouldn't find out anything more with Michael watching.

********

The clang of boots on metal echoed around the bustling Old Alliance cruiser that hung suspended above the gas giant Heinlein, reverberating down the hall to the small private office where Captain Arling stood at attention before his superior.

"And you're sure that none of this is an exaggeration. You saw this with your very own eyes Captain?" The gray haired man seated at his desk in front of him asked cautiously, as if he didn't dare to believe what he heard was true.

"Yes sir." Arling confirmed looking straight ahead. "The boy called Joseph Jules Conrad reverted to a pre-programmed state when he and Captain Tam were endangered. He neutralized four of my crew without killing them and then lifted me at least two feet off the ground with no apparent strain."

His commanding officer nodded slowly, taking in the information. "Was there any…outward sign of this state? Anything in his appearance that changed when his programming took over?"

Arling thought for a moment, reliving the moment in his mind, watching to see if the boy had changed at all.

"Yes," He finally said remembering something he hadn't noticed until Conrad had gotten close enough to pick him up. "His pupils had widened and covered the rest of his eyes. I could only see a thin stretch of white and none of the iris at all."

The gray haired man nodded again. "I see. Well, then Captain Arling, I must say you may have uncovered something even more valuable than the remains Captain Tam picked up. I will inform our…partner immediately." He spoke the word sourly, like he had just eaten a Sihon lemon.

"Sir?" Arling couldn't keep the word inside his mouth. His superior gave him a level look and Arling returned his gaze to the blank metal wall. He had not been given permission to speak.

Then a wry smile crept onto the old man's lips. "Don't worry Captain. It was only one word. I hired a treasure hunter of sorts to help track down the relics that are in the crate I ordered you to retrieve, just as a back up plan you understand, no offense meant. I hear he's very good. He's the one that recovered the recordings of the first behavior modified students for the Academy last year. I'm sure you've heard of him, John Strauss."

Arling nodded curtly. He had heard that name before. The stories said that it had taken him only half a year to find the tapes from when the Academy first started over two hundred years ago, while others had spent their entire lives looking for them.

"Very well Captain, your new orders will arrive shortly, dismissed."

Arling saluted sharply, then turned crisply on his heel and strode through the door, briefly wondering what his new assignment would be.

********

_"Stop him."_

The voice drifted through Jules's ears like wind through water reeds.

_"Stop him!"_ The pretty voice pleaded. _"She's going to die if you don't!"_

Yes, Jules thought distantly as he rolled over on his cot and fell back into the not quite dreaming state, it was most definitely a woman's voice.

_"She's your friend please!"_

He wondered how old she was. She didn't sound like she was much older than him. Maybe she was pretty?

"_SAVE HER!"_ The girl's voice screamed.

Jules bolted upright, his head colliding with the ridiculously low ceiling.

For a moment he just sat that, holding his now lumpy head in his hands, grumbling into his sheets.

Stupid dreams, every time he tried to sleep they intruded. First with the one of Eliza dying, then the one where John with gun in hand finally opened the box, then the other night he had dreamed he was a big purple plesiosaurus that ate stars.

Maybe his subconscious was trying to tell him something. Not so much about purple, star eating dinosaurs, but more that John had two things on his mind; specifically, murder and the box.

_"Attention, we will dock in Beaumonde in about twenty minutes. You all might want to bring your raincoats, it looks kinda rainy. Yuck." _Taylor's voice echoed around the Firefly through the ship's intercom. In the hidden closet that Eliza and Taylor had named the Cove, his voice rang especially loud, reverberating off the close small walls and making Jules wish he had brought some earplugs.

Maybe the Cove itself was why Jules kept dreaming. The 3x6 room was not what he would call conducive to good sleep with its low ceiling and crowded quarters. Most of the machinery cluttering up the room came from Earth-that-was, or at least had been modeled after it. The old fashioned television screen took up the most space where it sat next to the controls that let Jules switch views of Serenity. From here, in this tiny, closed off, crammed full space, he could see every deck, every room, every person inside Serenity. Which, given there was a spy onboard, proved to be exceedingly helpful.

Speaking of inconsiderate, annoying, O.A. moles, when Jules finally raised his head and caught sight of the viewing screen, he saw John sitting on his bunk, fiddling with his sidearm.

Now why would the pilot need his gun today? Jules wondered. True they would land planet-side soon and Beaumonde was not exactly the pinnacle of decent society, but still he didn't really need to make sure the power pack was freshly charged or that the device was set to fatal rather than stun.

Jules figured he had better warn Eliza before they docked. Grabbing his jacket from his cot where it had served as his pillow throughout the weeks, Jules struggled into it and left the Cove to hide somewhere in the cargo bay. Hopefully he could catch Eliza or Taylor alone before they docked.

********

Eliza woke to Taylor's obnoxiously cheery voice announcing loudly over the intercom that they would land in roughly twenty minutes. She supposed that meant she should get up soon. Instead she simply groaned and rolled over. She lay there, determinedly squeezing her eyes shut, trying to sink back into blissful sleep.

It didn't work. Nausea crept in, growing worse when Serenity hit the turbulent air of Beaumonde. That combined with the loss of the primary buffer panel made the ride down feel more like a bad roller coaster than the smooth descent that pilots usually aimed for.

Her stomach sloshed and spun with every tiny bump until finally it bubbled over and Eliza staggered to her water closet.

She felt like she sat there retching for hours, but she knew not ten minutes could have passed. Either way it was too long.

"Eliza?" Michael's voice appeared behind her as a hand came and rubbed soothing circles on her back. "Do you need me to get Alex?" He asked softly.

Eliza shook her head as she tried to get her breath back. She spit once more before she emptied the bowl and then leaned back with a groan against her husband.

"No," she reinforced her answer, hoping he wouldn't do it anyway. Alex might tell him before she got to. "No I'm fine."

Michael snorted. "You just threw up."

"Yeah, exactly, fine." Eliza said. "Is it hot in here to you?"

"No, but this might help." He said putting a sopping wet rag on her forehead. The water trickled down her face and neck, spreading coolness across her heated skin, making her feel slightly better.

"Thank you." She sighed out, relaxing even more.

"Is this part of that same virus you had on Ita?" Michael asked.

Eliza's eyes snapped open. "What? Who told you I was sick. Ruth promised not to tell and-"

"Eliza I live with you. How was I supposed _not _to notice?" He asked slanting a look at her. "Almost everyone knew you weren't feeling like yourself. It isn't that big of a ship."

Eliza narrowed her eyes, not bothering to answer that.

"Have you talked to Alex or should I plan to drag you to a doctor as soon as we dock?" Michael asked seeing the stubborn streak start to surface in his wife.

"That won't be necessary," Eliza said not looking at him. "I've already talked to him." She said avoiding further details.

Michael, however, did not. "And…?" He pressed wondering if he should really begin to worry. The last time Eliza had hidden an illness from him she had almost died. They had had to do an emergency gallbladder surgery to remove the failing organ.

"An-and he says it's nothing to worry about." She stuttered; he was getting closer to the heart of the issue.

"What exactly should I not worry about, hmm?"

He didn't miss her swallow hard. Whatever it was had her more anxious than he had ever seen. She pushed her face into his shirt, blowing out hot air as she sighed. She mumbled something indistinctly.

"Eliza-"

"I said," she quickly interrupted him pulling away so she could speak clearly. "That Alex thinks I might be pregnant."

It took Michael a moment to process this.

"Thinks?" He finally said, picking up on the uncertain words. "Might?"

Eliza looked down at his shirt as she stated fiddling with one of his buttons. "Maybe," she swallowed, "maybe he didn't sound so uncertain."

Michael took an even longer moment to process what she had just said.

"A...baby?" Michael grasped at the concept. "Are you, are you sure?"

"That's what your brother said." Eliza said.

Michael reached out and put his hand under Eliza's chin, making her finally look up at him. "Why does this upset you so much? I do remember you saying that you wanted children."

"Yes," she admitted, "but not now. I mean, we have a mole on board, a stupid box that could hold radioactive moon rocks for all we know, and on top of that," she paused pulling at her hair in nervousness and frustration before she spoke again, her voice softer and unsure, "and on top of that I'm not exactly cut out to be a mother."

Michael refused to laugh. Instead he reassured her with the truth. "I have never known anyone who can lead like you do Eliza. No one else would be able to handle this motley crew like you."

Eliza was already shaking her head. "Yeah, but this a child, not an employee. If I order John to do something, he'll jump to, or at least he will for the moment I don't know about later, but a child? What makes you think he or she will actually listen to me? I was a horrible child who ran around everywhere getting into trouble; Ruth was the good daughter. And with my crew I can be pretty sure that they won't do something incredibly dense, but a child I'll have to worry about her walking out the airlock or if he stored his toys right so they won't fall on his head next time he opens the closet."

"Eliza you're worrying too much. You _will_ be a very good mother. And baby will most definitely listen to you because they won't want to face the very justifiable consequences. Besides, they won't be able to reach the airlock controls until they're at least seven, maybe eight, and by then hopefully they'll be smart enough not to push it."

He was rewarded with a weak laugh. "Hopefully. I suppose we better start praying now that baby got all the smart genes."

Michael pulled her closer and comfortingly rubbed her arm. "Probably." He admitted, kissing the top of her head. They sat like that for awhile, each soaking in this new change.

_"Attention everybody, we've just received docking clearance, so buckle up and hold on tight."_ Taylor's voice rang out again, drawing both Michael and Elizabeth out of their thoughts. Eliza sat up, making a mental list of what she needed to do planet-side.

"It's going to be alright." Michael stopped her before she got to her feet.

Eliza let a big breath out. "I know." She said looking at the floor again. "I'm just terrified is all." She admitted ruefully.

Michael couldn't keep the small smile from creeping on his face. Eliza so rarely admitted her fear; it was like the softest part of her underbelly. He pulled her back gently and found her lips in a kiss, his hands resting around her waist.

********

John walked briskly down the hallway towards the back of the ship where the ramp lay down, letting the cool, misty air of Beaumonde inside the stuffy ship. He found most of the crew was already in the cargo hold, along with two other men who looked to be from the docking station. Elizabeth was busy signing and initialing papers agreeing to follow their rules, that they had no contraband, they were not hosting any criminal fugitives, blah, blah, and blah.

Another man stood in the corner, looking around at his surroundings with the slightly impatient air of someone who was tired of waiting for someone else.

"Is there something I can help you with?" John asked the man politely.

The man turned. "Possibly," he answered looking up at John from his slightly shorter stature. "I'm from the local junkyard. Captain Tam rented our laser saw to cut open a crate. Very strange request, but she's already paid and the boss doesn't turn down paying jobs, no matter how ridiculous. I just need to know which box to grab and then I can be on my way."

John couldn't believe what he was hearing. That woman had gone plumb crazy. She didn't even know what was in that box, nobody did. The scientists from Station 12 had only told him the remains of some moldy old experiment or another was in there, but from the tone of their voices, they were just guessing too. And who knew what mummified mutant bones did after two hundred years. For all they knew, the experiments had caused the bones to turn into the poisonous Royad gas.

Besides, if she cut open the box then John wouldn't be able to collect his full payment.

"Give me a minute to ask the captain." John told him, leaving the man to wait again as he went to talk with Elizabeth.

She crossed her last T with a flourish, thankful to be done with the stack of paperwork that accompanied any landing on decently civilized worlds. "There." She told the officers with a smile.

"Thank you ma'am." One said tipping his hat as the other put the papers back into a sturdy envelope to protect them from the rain. Then they left, stopping in the entrance long enough just to pull their coats up over their necks and their hats down to protect their faces.

"Captain," John stepped forward, doing his best to look as innocuous as possible. "There's a man here about the crate from Atlantis." He told her simply.

"Ah, good." Eliza said spotting the man. "Now we can finally find out what's in it."

"Are you sure that's such a good idea Captain?" John asked stepping in front of her, blocking her way to the man. "We have no idea what's in it."

"I know, that's why we're about to find out." Eliza said, her wariness rising.

"No" John said keeping himself in between her and the man. "What I mean is what if the contents are dangerous? It could easily be poison or gas." He pointed out trying to convince her to wait just a little bit longer. He would have everything ready in two days to extract the crate without anyone becoming suspicious that he was the one who took it.

But Michael came up just then and laughed. "No there was definitely something solid in there. The ultrasound picked up some fuzzy outlines, we just couldn't find out what the shape was. Hey have either of you seen Alex?" He asked.

"He went to get more medical supplies." Eliza told him before turning back to John and clapping her hands. "Well alright then," She said motioning John to move aside. "Let's find out what's fuzzy and lives in a box for two centuries."

So that's how it was going to be.

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that Captain." John said steadily drawing his gun. He raised the firearm swiftly and held it level with Captain Tam's eyes.

Everyone in the cargo deck instantly froze.

"We don't have to do this the hard way." John reassured them, but did not lower the weapon. "I'd prefer not to actually; much too messy. If you give me the crate now, you'll live Elizabeth Tam."

Steel entered her emerald eyes. "You know what's in it?" she asked not answering his question or acknowledging the gun pointed at her head except for her refusal to move.

John cracked a rare smile. "Nope," He told her. "Nobody does really. But I don't really care as long as they pay me the amount they promised."

"That good huh?" She asked.

"Better. Now move aside." He said tightening his finger on the trigger.

"Let's not lie to each other." Eliza suggested her voice hard. "You're not really planning on letting any of us live. We know too much about you beyond your description and you know it. You already know that I don't hire anybody without a military grade background check and since you cleared, you must have used a real identity card in the first place. Now you might have used someone else's, but I know a corpse card when I see it which means you used your very own name and information to come aboard." She told him, referring to the identity cards stolen from deceased persons and given a new image by their slang name.

John's smile grew wider, stretching his face in unfamiliar ways. It was so nice to have a worthy adversary every once and a while.

"I do admit that I was toying with the idea of getting rid of the witnesses." He confessed. "However I wasn't sure how well you had put the pieces together. No sense leaving a bloody trail behind me the entire time yes? But thankfully that decision appears to have been made for me. I will thank you for that Captain." He said checking his aim before he shot, not that he could miss this close to her.

And then, in that moment, several things happened at once.

Taylor ran forward to tackle John but as far away as he was he would never make it before he fired, killing Elizabeth.

Jules ran out of his hiding spot, barreling into Elizabeth and knocking both her and Michael to the ground.

Cassiopeia yowled and sunk her fangs into John's very vulnerable shins and clawed her way up his legs, making him shout and jump.

Finally, there was a loud BANG!

Taylor railroaded the traitor, flattening him with his momentum and weight and pinning him to the ground keeping him away from the still smoking gun.

Eliza, Michael, and Jules stood up shakily, each checking the others for unwelcome bullet holes or blooming red stains on their clothes.

But they were all clean.

"Eliza?" Ruth's terrified voice came from the entry way.

Elizabeth found a weak smile before she turned to reassure her sister. "It's okay Ruth; we're all just fi-"

She stopped what she was saying when she saw the red fluid flowing down her sister's dress. Her hand pushed against her stomach where the bullet had entered her body.

"'Liza it hurts." Ruth slurred.

Then she fell.

* * *

I think I can officially call this a cliffhanger (such a weird word I think). Chapter Seven will be up exceedingly soon so don't worry too much. And please leave me a review. Please....!


	7. Chapter 7: I'm Sorry

You know what I just realized? Finding Her Serenity has been up for like, two years and a couple months. Isn't that amazing? Two years. Now if only I could write faster...Anyway, chapter seven, yeah! As I said before, really short, but it's also kinda sad so prepare you're selves. See all y'all later.

P.S. - please review! Over a hundred people have read Finding Her Serenity since yesterday and yet none of you left me a review. I even made it so that anonymous people could review. (I will admit that I didn't know that there was a restriction on that until my friend tried to leave me a review...) So go ahead and push the button!

* * *

Finding Her Serenity

-

Chapter Seven: "I'm Sorry"

-

"Go get an ambulance!" Elizabeth turned and shouted at the man from the junkyard. Ever since John had pulled his gun, he had stood there, stock still and terrified.

"NOW!" Captain Tam screamed when he didn't move.

The man took off, proving faster than he looked, not daring to look back at Serenity and her crew.

Eliza rushed to her sister's side and found her hand. "Ruth?" She asked her blood running cold at the sight of her sister's bleeding stomach wound. "Ruthie, answer me sweetheart." She pleaded.

Ruth managed to turn her head enough to meet her sister's gaze. "'Liza?" She asked confused by the pain she felt. "'Liza what happened?"

Eliza held back the tears. "You just got a little hurt is all. Don't worry we'll get you fixed up."

A wailing siren spoke up in the distance. Eliza hoped that it meant that the man had gotten help.

Ruth squeaked when Jules pressed down on her stomach, trying to stop the bleeding. "Stop it." She moaned trying to shove him away. "Don't hurt baby, stop it."

Eliza felt like her heart was about to break.

"Ruth," she tried to say, but stopped when she heard her voice crack. "Ruth I don't know-"

Just then two EMTs rushed through the hold carrying a stiff stretcher, followed by the junkyard man. The politely but firmly replaced Jules, moving him off to the side so they could inspect Ruth's wound. They tried to move Eliza too, but one good glare and the sentence, "I'm her sister," ended that nonsense. The two men talked quickly, not bothering to find out what happened. On the count of three they flipped Ruth onto the stretcher and carried her to the white and red vehicle that had just screeched to a halt in front of Serenity.

Eliza followed them quickly. "Michael, go get Alex." She yelled back before jumping into the back of the ambulance, the doors slamming shut behind her.

The ride to the hospital was bumpy and terrifying and nothing like the flying Eliza was used to. She sat there clinging to her sister's hand as the EMTs busied themselves around the unconscious woman. They managed to slow the blood leaking out of Ruth's body, but were unable to stem it completely before they reached the tall, clean building known as Memorial Hospital.

The two uniformed men rushed out of the vehicle as soon as it screeched to a halt, carrying Ruth with them. Eliza hopped out and followed them, nearly running to keep up with them inside the white tiled confines of the hospital. The hurried through another set of doors, shoving them roughly aside and attracting the attention of other nurses and doctors, but when Eliza tried to follow them, a middle aged nurse with premature streaks of gray in her short cut brown hair stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry miss," she said apologetically, "you have to stay out here. We'll tell you when you can see her."

Eliza wanted to shout at the woman, tell her she could see her own sisters if she very well pleased, especially when she was hurt, but she couldn't make her mouth move quick enough and the woman hurried through the doors to wherever the others had taken her younger sister.

Not knowing what else to do, Eliza tumbled over to a dark blue plastic chair and collapsed with her head in her hands.

********

The automatic doors opened half an hour later with a muffled 'shff' as Michael and Alex swiftly entered the hospital. They stopped long enough to spy Eliza sitting dejectedly in the corner. After a quick look at each other, Alex rushed to the reception desk to find out how his wife was doing while Michael went to sit next to Eliza.

He didn't say anything at first, watching his brother as a nurse led him through the swinging doors. Eliza took the chance to wipe her eyes and dry her cheeks on her dirty shirt sleeve. However her eyes were still red from crying when she looked up at Michael.

"Where are Taylor and Jules?" She asked her voice thick.

"They're guarding John until the law can take him into custody. Though I imagine that won't take too long. Jules contacted me on our way here and told me that a few officers were already there asking questions. I doubt John will get away from prison."

Eliza nodded, not saying anything else.

"She's going to be okay." He tried to reassure her after a moment, but his voice quavered. He didn't know at all if his sister-in-law would live.

Eliza nodded anyway. Her sister was going to live. She just had to.

********

Alex walked with heavy steps down the straight wide hallway, looking at each door plaque as he walked by, reading the numbers anxiously. 311. Where the heck was 311?

The number suddenly glared out at him off to his left and he arrowed towards it.

He hesitated just outside the door, afraid of what he would find inside. But a small moan from inside drew him in and he, looking around wildly for the source.

Ruth lay on a thin white sheeted hospital bed with plastic rails lining the sides so she wouldn't fall off and hurt herself even more. Alex walked softly to the side of the bed, afraid of waking her even though he knew that the hospital doctors would have sedated her so they could remove the bullet. He glanced at the monitors and charts surrounding his wife reassuring himself that she would live, that she would wake up in an hour or two.

Then finally, he turned and looked at his wife. Her face was pale, but her breathing remained steady and even. She didn't look like she was sleeping so much as she looked like she was sick and had dozed off from exhaustion.

Alex found a chair and took Ruth's hand. How could he have let this happen? Why hadn't he been there to help her? He could have waited to fetch more supplies for the clinic. Why hadn't he stayed?

Alex leaned his head against the bed railing. He just didn't know.

A soft step behind him should have alerted Alex to the other man's presence, but he was so involved in his own thoughts he didn't notice until the man spoke.

"Mr. Tam?" He asked laying a hand on his shoulder to gain his attention.

Alex stood and faced the person behind him. The man, obviously a doctor by his white coat and I.D. clipped to his pocket, stood about a head shorter than Alex with light brown hair and brown eyes framed by thin glasses. The look on the young man's face destroyed what little hope Alex had left. He knew that look. He saw it on every face, including his own, whenever he had to tell some poor soul that someone they loved was dying.

Alex swallowed convulsively. "Yes." His voice cracked, but he barely noticed.

"I'm afraid that while we were able to save your wife we weren't able to save the child. I'm sorry."

Alex nodded, unable to speak. The man gave him a sympathetic look but didn't say anymore before he left the room. Wearily Alex resumed his seat next to his wife.

Ruth was fine, she would live.

But they had lost their child.


	8. Chapter 8: The New Girl

Finding Her Serenity

Chapter Eight: The New Girl

Eliza walked sedately down the hallway from Serenity's cockpit. They had just landed on Jiangyin, the main planet near Greenleaf, Eliza and Ruth's home world. Jiangyin, one of the Alliance strongholds in the early days when Miranda was still a terrible secret, was now a loyal New Alliance world. Unlike most of the Old Alliance worlds, the inhabitants had put up a fight, since most of them were part of the old government, against the reformers who wanted change after the unearthing of the origin of Reavers.

Eliza stepped in Serenity's main hold and caught a glimpse of Jiangyin's grand city Jiangsu. The large robust city sprawled outward, a mass of earth brown buildings covered in splashes and splotches of bright colors to add life to the old buildings.

A subtle movement caught Eliza's eye and she turned to see her sister standing in the shadow of the stairway. She was dressed in one of her simple yet elegant dresses with a cream colored bodice and a long skirt embroidered with tiny detailed leaves and flowers that hung close to her legs.

"How are you feeling today?" She asked her younger sister.

Ruth didn't look over at her sister as she answered, "Fine."

"Are you going to go out today?" Eliza asked diverting her eyes back to the rambling city outside, afraid of the look on her sister's face.

Ruth didn't say anything this time only shook her head and turned away from the view and Eliza. Without another word she walked back into the shadows and disappeared into Serenity.

Eliza took a deep breath and rolled her eyes back into her head to stop the tears that she felt burning behind her eyes. When Ruth had lost her baby three months ago, she had turned quiet, not talking to her sister and rarely even to her husband. Alex had not said much outside direct questions. None on the ship knew how to reach them. Eliza just didn't know how to tell her sister and her brother-in-law that none of this was their fault.

Worrying over her family didn't help Eliza feel better herself. She was exhausted from hormones and morning sickness which had yet to fade. It didn't help that she and Taylor had to share the responsibility of flying Serenity since they lost their pilot to the police. Both she and her first mate could fly the cargo ship decently, but Eliza had never gotten the hang or flying large ships and Taylor tended to excel at piloting small fighters who had to go through evasive maneuvers to avoid O.A. troops. They had searched for a good pilot at every stop they had made, but so far they hadn't had any luck. If they didn't find anyone good soon, Eliza would just settle for decent.

"Hey," Michael called as he leapt down the stairs three at a time to land by his wife. "Ready to go?" He summoned a smile for her. Lately he hadn't smiled as easily or as happily as before.

Eliza nodded stiffly before walking just as stiffly out the door. Michael caught up with her easily and grabbed her hand before settling into step beside her.

They didn't talk for the rest of the way to the bar where they planned on interviewing their pilot wannabes. Granted it wasn't the nicest place for an interview, but like Eliza thought before, she would settle for decent.

The entrance to the Dragon's Nest sat in the middle of a small alleyway between a sleazy pawn shop and a sturdy looking herbal shop. Opening the steel enforced wooden door, Eliza followed by Michael walked down the stairs to the underground tavern and stopped at the bottom of the stairs to get a good look at the large stone room in front of them. Like the rest of Jiangsu, the dark background was splattered with bashes of bright colors. A TV screen flashed ad after ad blaring caustic words and raucous music hit the stone walls and bounced around the room, redoubling the noise.

Eliza glared at the lousy surroundings until she saw a jumpy man sitting alone in the far corner.

Michael groaned. "That can't be him can it? He looks like he just robbed a bank."

Eliza pursed her lips glared even harder at the man at the corner table. "Unless he has an amazing flying history I think we know the answer to this."

Michael nodded before following Eliza to the agitated man alone on the corner.

The guy jumped when they plopped in the chairs across from him. He stared at them anxiously before leaning closer and whispering, "Are you Captain Tam?"

Eliza frowned down at the fidgety fellow looking at her like she was a dragon herself. "Yes, and you wouldn't be Jack Wilson?" The guy nodded like a bobble head.

"How are you at flying ancient cargo ships?" Michael took over, leaning closer.

The man twitched and reached up to finger his short, greasy hair. "Not bad, not bad. I'm more used to Liberty ships and Pans but I think I can fly something like whatcha got." He said glancing at the two rather then really looking at them.

Michael and Eliza spared a glance at each other as well. Silent agreement: Heck no.

"I'm sorry but Serenity can be kind of difficult for people who aren't used to ones like her so we would like someone with more experience." Michael told the man, taking on the first rejection.

The fidgety man gave them a hard look but backed down when he saw the even harder looks of Eliza and Michael.

"Alright, alright. I'll just take my experience somewhere else then." He said standing uncertainly before looking towards the bar. "I think I see some friends of mine anyway."

Eliza watched him leave while Michael waved two fingers in a farewell.

The rest of the interviews went much the same. The only interesting part was when it was Eliza's turn to reject their applicant and told the guy sitting across from her that he looked like a poodle instead of he should keep flying the new Noodle ships. The man looked he wanted to bite her. And not figuratively either, he looked like he really wanted bite her. Quite honestly it was slightly disturbing but one look at Michael, and his very persuasive weapon, sent the man on his way.

"Well that was a total waste of time." Eliza grumbled leaning back in her chair to stretch her back.

Michael groaned. "You're telling me. Do you want to get some lunch before we head back? I bet Taylor is still working on getting the fuel cells loaded."

Eliza thought so too, but she wasn't hungry. "I don't know about food. The alcohol fumes are making me nauseas enough as it is. Can we go somewhere else?" She asked him.

Michael smiled and nodded, holding out his hand to help her up. They left the tavern quickly now that there wasn't any reason to stay any longer. Eliza took a deep breath as soon as the heavy door to the Dragon's Nest swung shut behind them with a metal clang. While the air wasn't the freshest around here, it was easily better then the stale, alcohol filled air down bellow.

"Let's take the long way back." Eliza suggested. She loved her Serenity. She loved her sister. But too much discord and angry remorse filled the ancient ships holds lately and Eliza wanted a break.

From the look of relief on Michael's face, he felt the same. "Sure," He said. "That sounds grand."

Eliza almost laughed. "Grand? Are you going to start talking like a Dytonite on me are you?"

Michael grinned as they started walking down the brightly colored mud street. "No, but it seemed like a 'grand' moment."

"Ha, ha." Eliza laughed sarcastically.

Street traffic had picked up now. It was about half way through the morning and the hawkers were out, peddling their merchandise while stout women with their hair piled on their heads out of the way haggled with merchants and cart vendors. This close to the ship docks travelers and space goers strolled down the muddy street enjoying the feel of real gravity pulling down their feet while they could. Soon the need for freedom and longing to have the stars so close they could reach out and touch them would drive them back to their ships. Other pedestrians, most intent solely on their destination, sped past, looking only at the dirt beneath them.

"Do you want to stay here long enough to pick up work?" Michael asked next to her.

Eliza sighed. "Not really." She felt the pull of space dragging at her. She needed to see those stars up close and know that _some_ things at least, hadn't changed. "Could we talk about something else though?" She asked, squeezing his hand.

Michael smiled at her sweetly and raised her hand to kiss it. "You just want to be out there again don't you?" He asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yes." Eliza said explosively. "I miss that feel of being surrounded by nothing. Down here there's so much _stuff_." She swept her other hand out at all the rushing people, dull buildings, and brightly colored banners, signs, and clothes.

"I know what you mean." Michael said as they turned the corner down another, even louder, street back towards Serenity.

They were silent a moment as they walked.

"Although we'll have to find a planet we can both stand to be grounded on for at least a year." He said thoughtfully.

Eliza sighed again, much calmer then before. "I know. But I just don't know. I can't imagine anywhere I actually like that much."

Michael laughed, but quickly turned serious again. Something was weighing on his mind. "I had hoped that, possibly..." He stopped, rubbing his face anxiously.

Eliza stopped walking, pulling her husband to a halt with her. "What?" She asked, not sure if she wanted to know the answer.

Michael gave her a look that said she wouldn't like what he was going to suggest, but he really, really, wanted to do it anyway. "I thought that it might be nice if we go visit my mother. I don't think we've seen her since Grandmother's seventieth birthday."

Eliza groaned. "Do I have to?" She whined.

Michael cocked an eyebrow at her. "And here I thought you liked my mom." He said, knowing perfectly well the reason why she didn't like visiting his family.

"I do. I love your mom. She likes me. It's your grandma that drives me crazy and you know it."

Michael snorted. "If I could think of anyway to avoid her you'll be the first to know. Even Alex can't stay around her long with his polite frown turning into a glare. But wherever we meet Mom, she'll follow, if only to irritate us."

Eliza's shoulders slumped. "I know." She said thinking about avoiding the bitter old woman and then feeling guilty about not telling Katherine Tam about her grandchild to her face.

All the air left Eliza with a whoosh. "I suppose we'll have to see the both of them. Maybe we can meet them on Gladscall like last time." They couldn't visit the Tam estate, after moving several times to avoid New Alliance control, it was still deep in Old Alliance territory.

Michael nodded as they began walking again. "I don't think Grandmother especially liked the humidity. She said she felt like she was being boiled alive and refused to come out of her room."

"Oh yes that was a shame." Eliza said a bit too innocently.

Michael smirked.

The colorful market crowd was soon replaced with space travelers in more sensible, sturdy wear. Off at the end of the row of docked spaceships, Serenity sat with her cargo door open.

As they walked closer, Eliza saw amidst the various shades of brown, black, and sometimes dark red, there was a speck of sky blue.

The crowd parted enough for her to see that it was a young woman with fair colored hair standing in front of Serenity.

Eliza looked at Michael, who looked just as confused. "Do you know her?" She asked. He shook his head.

The stranger didn't turn around as they approached. Up close Eliza saw that she was young, maybe not even eighteen. Her sky blue shirt was cut in a recent fashion, but not the very latest fad. Her cargo pants were a dusty tan and fashioned much the same way. The only luxury Eliza saw were the twinkling blue dangles swinging in her ears. A large dog with mottled brown fur sat panting at her side gazing round at the passerby. Occasionally it would look up at its mistress as if to ask what they were waiting for.

"Excuse me?" Michael asked when they were close enough with that blinding smile he used to blind people with. "May I help you young miss?"

The young woman turned around but didn't look at either of them. She couldn't. Her eyes were blue, like her shirt, but a translucent white film covered them. She was blind.

She stared at the empty space between their heads. "Are you speaking to me?" She asked in a cool, feminine voice.

"Yes. My name is Michael and this is my wife Elizabeth. Did you want something with us? Passage maybe on Serenity? Or did you have a question about a destination perhaps?"

Some tension went out of the girl's slender shoulders and she let out a breath of air. "Oh good. I was worried for a moment that we had the wrong Firefly. Although, as Myles continues to point out, there are precious few of them still flying about. I've never seen one in such good shape before. But then again, the only ones I've seen are preserved in museums. Actually the only ones in museums have little boxes next to them telling about Malcolm Reynolds and the discovery of Miranda. They never talk about Serenity. It's wonderful to meet her in person." The girl's voice grew softer as she turned back to the beautiful ship.

She stared at Serenity for a moment for all the world as if she could see it.

"I'm sorry miss but who are you?" Michael asked wanting an answer and not a monologue.

The dog whuffled at his lady.

She turned away from the Firefly with a start. "Oh my mistake. I must be more nervous then I thought. I usually don't prattle like that. My name is Quinn Hubbard and I came to ask if you still need a pilot."

* * *

"Well things just keep getting better today don't they?" Eliza wanted to say. But she had enough temperament left to keep her mouth shut.

Quinn spoke again, sounding like she had practiced what she was going to say for quite some time. "As you've probably noticed, I'm blind. I was born this way. I have some long named disease but the effect is clear enough. That's what Myles is here for aren't ya boy?" She smiled as she leaned down to pat her large dog on the head. His tongue lolled out of his mouth in a doggy grin.

Eliza couldn't help her self. "And you want to fly?" She asked incredulously.

Quinn glared at the space two inches to the left of Eliza's head. "Yes. I can fly anything you give me and I'll prove it if you'll give me a chance.

Myles woofed an agreement.

Eliza gave the young woman a disbelieving look. "Fine, but you'll have to give me one fine reason why I should get in a ship with you at the helm first. You've already admitted you're blind. How are you going to fly without seeing?"

Quinn smiled a thing that showed her teeth rather then a good mood. Her hand came up. Eliza wrapped her fingers around her gun before she saw that the girl was pointing at Michael.

"Move." She commanded him.

"Sheesh." He said under his breath as he took a few steps to the right.

She glared. "And do it quietly."

Michael gave her a stern look, but did as she said. Without a sound that could be heard over the bustle of the ship docks, he backed up then circled to the right about the two women.

She followed him. Her finger never wavered from its course and when Michael stopped moving, so did she. She was still pointing right at his nose.

"Will that be enough for now?" Quinn asked a little cheekily.

Eliza glared at her, bordering on furious now. "Fine, but you better be a flying genius for all this cheek you're giving out."

Quinn smiled wider.

Eliza rolled her eyes and sighed. "This way Quinn, we'll take a shuttle out for a spin."

Quinn didn't move as they left.

"Quinn! I don't have all day." Eliza snapped.

The girl jumped. "Oh sorry." She apologized, her face turning red.

* * *

The three of them made their way through Serenity to her starboard shuttle. Michael and Eliza sat in the extra seats along the wall while Quinn strapped herself into the pilot's chair. Taking a cord that looked similar to old Earth-that-was USB cables from somewhere Eliza didn't see, the young woman plugged it into the consol.

"What's that?" Michael asked curiously.

"If you hire me I'll tell you." Quinn said taking the controls in a firm grip.

Eliza was pleasantly, no, she was downright amazed at the girl's skills. She handled Serenity's shuttle with ease and near perfect control. Throughout the trip she stayed relaxed as she concentrated on the temperamental shuttle.

The captain barely felt a bump when Quinn brought the shuttle down.

For a moment Eliza and Michael were quiet as Quinn undid her buckle and freed her dog from his restraints. She had insisted that he come and Eliza, wanting to get this over with as quickly as possible, had eventually allowed the four legged passenger.

"Well?" The young woman asked expectantly, smiling now much more naturally then before. "What'd ya say?"

Eliza and Michael looked at each other. There was no doubt about it; Quinn was better then good. She was exactly what they'd been looking for.

But...

"Fine you can come, but you've gotta come clean with us first." Eliza told her.

The younger woman looked confused. "What do ya mean?"

"What's your real name?" Michael asked.

Quinn now looked apprehensive. "I told you. Quinn Hubble."

Huh. "I thought you said it was Hubbard?" Eliza asked, more suspicious then before.

The girl put on a superior look. "You must have heard wrong."

Eliza snorted. "Yeah, nice try girly. I've got good ears. You're a runaway right?"

"How did you know?" 'Quinn' looked shocked.

"We've been around." Michael told her. "If you don't want people to suspect you so much, you should use a name that's close enough to your real name that you'll respond to it. And don't act like a street player. You sounded like you'd memorized that speech earlier. It makes folk look at you sideways."

The girl sighed despairingly. Her dog whined and pushed his slobbery face next to hers. She laughed and shoved him back a bit. "Cut it out Myles I'm okay."

She scratched his neck as she thought.

"You're going to take me with you as long as I tell you the truth right?"

Eliza and Michael shared a look. "As long as you haven't done anything illegal." Michael told her.

The girl sighed again and sat up in her chair. "Alright, my real name's Samantha Stiern. I have my license if you want proof."

Michael looked skeptically at the girl. "I don't remember the Stierns having a daughter, just the one boy oh, what's his name, Markus." The Stiern family were the owners and founders of Stiern Industries, known for their up to the date technology and just downright fancy inventions. They were also very a public family, going everywhere, doing everything, and always in sight of the media. Eliza hadn't heard of or seen a Samantha Stiern.

Samantha looked slightly angry. "Yeah I know. I was the surprise child. When I was born blind, they pretended I died rather then suffer the embarrassment. They said it was for my own protection from the busybody media, but I've been the family secret my whole life and I'm tired of it. They only humored me when I said I wanted my pilot's license, but I'm still legit to fly."

Michael passed Samantha's license to Eliza. She scanned it carefully. It was real and clean. She handed it back to the girl. "What's that thing you plugged into the shuttle?" She asked.

Samantha smiled brightly. "My Uncle Andrew made it for me. I have one of those ear implants that lets me communicate with Myles, my Seeing Eye dog, so I know where I'm going even though I can't see. Uncle Andrew modified it so that with the plug I can connect with ships and other electronic networks like I connect with Myles."

"And that's how you fly? By joining with the shuttle's main consol?" Michael asked curious.

Samantha nodded happily. "It's cool isn't it?"

Michael nodded and Eliza could see the questions building up behind his teeth. She reached out and put her hand on his knee. "Ask later dear heart." She said when he took her hand. There would be plenty of time to ask Samantha questions later.

"Right then I only see one problem left." Eliza said.

Samantha looked worried again. "What?"

"How well trained is your dog?"

"He's very friendly if that's what you're worried about."

"Oh I'm not worried about his people skills; I'm worried about his cat skills. We have a cat on board and she's not very good with other animals. She can turn into a little brat too when she's in a snit."

Samantha laughed and rubbed Myles's back. "Oh he'll be good won't you boy?" She asked him.

Myles barked excitedly.

And that was the end of that. Serenity now had her new pilot.

* * *

Yeah, hooray! I'm posting this in celebration. I got my Aslan paper in on time so yes! I hope all you you will enjoy this chapter and leave a review. Thank you! TTFN. Ta ta for now.


	9. Chapter 9: Sleeping Beauty

Finding Her Serenity

Chapter Nine: Sleeping Beauty

_"Help."_

Jules looked up from the valve he was fixing for Michael above the engine room. He looked around him, but no one was there.

_"Help."_ The soundless voice came again.

Jules didn't look up again, but instead stretched out with his mind. The 'gifts' he had acquired before waking up on the moon Lilac were sometimes frightening, however some of them were also extremely useful. He could hear peoples thought. Not all the time and not always clearly, but they were still there, floating, disembodied voices that made him feel like he was being haunted by ghosts.

_"Hello?"_ He called with his mind, reaching out for the presence that had called to him for over a week now.

_"Help."_ The voice called weaker now.

"_Hello!"_ Jules called louder.

_"Please."_

Then it slipped away. Again.

Jules shook his head and went back to patching up the valve. He had searched all over Serenity with his eyes and his head, but he still couldn't find the voice's owner. Either she, he was almost positive it was a woman, couldn't hear him or he was losing his mind. Maybe Sam was right, he needed a girlfriend.

He laughed bitterly. Like he would ever do something so stupid. He wouldn't put some innocent girl in the line of Academy fire. They would literally tear her apart.

That was also the reason why he had told Eliza and Taylor that he couldn't remember anything before he had escaped to Lilac. He stayed as truthful as he could without putting them in danger, but it was difficult. He could remember what the doctors at the Academy had done to him, much as he didn't want to, but he didn't know why or what their tests did. And although he could remember that he had escaped, he couldn't remember doing it. Whenever he tried to remember about his escape from the Academy, all he could recall was an alto voice, deep for a woman, but gentle and rumbling. Like how he would imagine a great cat speaking.

"Run little one. Be safe." It had said.

Jules rolled over to see big, gold eyes staring at him.

"Ack!" He cried trying to spring away but only hitting his head on the pipelines above him.

"Cassiopeia!" He shouted. "Don't do that." He chided the silvery cat as he rubbed the back of his head.

The feline refused to be chided however. With an almost royal mew, she strolled over and rubbed against his pant leg, careful to avoid the black grease stains.

He pulled off his gloves and reached down to put her. She gave him another long look before brushing her soft fur against his hand.

"Are you trying to comfort me my little star-cat?" She mewed again. "Well that's very sweet of you, but try not to scare me in the process next time yeah?"

She made no promises and walked away as only a cat can.

Shaking his head, he picked up his gloves and tools and followed her down the corridor.

********

Cassiopeia followed Jules up to the cockpit, where Sam (it turned out she'd take a swing at you if you called her Samantha as Taylor had found out on the girl's first day on the job) and Myles were the only ones up there. Cassiopeia took one look at the bouncy, slobbering dog and her fur rose on end. She gave a low growl and a hiss at the dog before leaping up onto the consol.

"If you don't like him you can leave cat." Sam said irritably.

"Not much of a cat person are you?" Jules asked as he sat in the empty co-pilot's chair.

Sam didn't turn toward him when she answered. "No, I prefer canine company. They don't claw you when you make them happy."

"Do we need to cut your claws again your highness?" Jules asked Serenity's cat.

Cassiopeia growled at him louder then she had at Myles. Crossly she jumped back down to the floor and left with her tail in the air, indignant.

"Bye-bye putty tat." Sam called cheekily. Myles barked something insultingly in dog.

Jules laughed softly. "Are you getting along as well with everybody else or should I be worried about someone smothering you with a pillow tonight?" He asked jokingly.

"Ha!" Sam laughed. She laughed loud as he had found out earlier. "No I think the people on this ship actually like me for some reason."

"That's only because you're as strange as the rest of us. Serenity seems to like you too. How are the two of you getting along?"

Sam nodded. "Good. She reminds me of my great-grandma. She had her own way of doing things too. She used to tell me stories and describe colors for me when I was small. I remember she smelled like lavender." She said fondly as she lovingly rubbed a bare piece of steel on Serenity's control board.

Then Myles got jealous and shoved his head under her hand so she would pet him.

Sam laughed and stroked her dog's head and neck. "So Jules," She started off.

He inwardly sighed. He knew that tone. Sam was about to start talking dates again.

"That fruit girl from our last stop seemed to like you. Did she actually bat her eyelashes like in all the stories Great-grandma used to tell me? Or did my ears deceive me about her flirty tone of voice."

Jules just shrugged even though she couldn't see. "Ah, she wasn't my type." He told her.

"You've said that about the last three girls I've heard flirting with you. What exactly is your type?" Sam demanded.

"Oh, I guess she won't bat her eyelashes at me. And she'll be a cat person."

A harsh voice over the com interrupted the two before Sam could answer. "Jules!" Michael's frustrated voice yelled. "Get down here I need your help! That darn valve has busted again. Make sure to bring your gloves. It's already turning red."

Jules reached past Sam and pushed a button. "Got it, I'll be right down. See ya later Sam." He told the pilot as he grabbed his gloves and rushed out the door.

Sam looked hard at the view port in front of her without seeing it after he left.

Myles grew worried and when whining didn't get his girl's attention he whuffed softly.

"No I'm okay Myles." She answered the question only she could hear. "I've just decided that boys are blinder then I am."

Myles fell quiet after that, lying down on his dog bed that Sam had given him so he wouldn't have to sleep on the cold metal floor. He knew it was no good trying to understand his girl's thoughts about the opposite gender.

Sam continued to glare at the window. Why did boys have to be so stupid she thought? They could never see when you liked them. She sighed out loud. She didn't have much experience with other people, especially boys her own age, so she wasn't sure how to tell Jules, or even if she should. He was the only person on board Serenity that was easy around her. All the others were almost stiff. The first mate, Taylor, was slightly awkward. The doctor was stiff although Michael said he usually acted like that. Alex's wife wouldn't even talk to her, although she had heard that she was nicer before she lost her baby. Michael was nice, but he was usually down in the engine room. Captain Tam was exactly that, a captain. Whether it was because of her own pregnancy or her strained relationship with her sister, the captain was stern, only concentrating on work whenever Sam talked with her. Jules said she wasn't always like that. It was only because of the hard times, but Sam wasn't so sure that was it.

But none of them, except Jules and that cat who simply hated her, really knew how to deal with her blindness. That was her main problem. Usually she just stayed up here in the cockpit with Myles, afraid of the stiffness that appeared around the others. She couldn't sleep up here though.

With a sigh she stood, pushing back her chair and holding her hand down low so she could catch Myles's lead. With his help she navigated the stairs and platforms to the cargo room where she could get to her bunk.

Halfway down the cargo hold stairs, she heard an annoying high pitched alarm start to go off.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

It didn't stop and no one came to turn it off.

"Hello?" Sam called. Everyone else must have been too far away to hear the alarm she thought.

But even after she hollered twice more no one appeared.

She rubbed her temples; the continuous beeping was starting to grind on her nerves.

"Okay Myles let's get out of here. I'm getting a headache. It must not be that important if no one's watching whatever it is. Someone will hear it eventually. Let's go get some sleep."

Myles woofed an agreement and led the way down to their small room.

********

But no one else heard it.

"Seriously?" Sam asked incredulously when she told Captain Tam about the alarm in the cargo hold. "You can't hear it?"

"Nope." Elizabeth told her as she scanned through numerous planets where she could meet with her in-laws without too much hassle. "Neither does anybody else who goes down there."

"But I'm not making this up!" Sam cried. This was worse then home. At home they had just ignored her; here they must think she was crazy.

"I never said you were. You never struck me as a liar, at least not a very good one anyway. I think you've just come down with a bad case of Marshall Ears. Sometimes when people just up and leave planet-side after living somewhere most of their life, they hear things to fill in the heavy quiet so it doesn't sound so unnatural to them. Don't worry about it; the beeping will go away soon I'm sure." Captain Tam told her before finding what she needed and leaving Sam alone in the cockpit.

Sam's mouth hung open. Eventually she turned toward her dog.

"Did she just tell me it's all in my head?" She asked incredulously.

Myles huffed an affirmative.

"Unbelievable." Sam muttered. She left the room hoping to find someone, anyone, who would actually believe her.

********

Of course she went to Jules first.

"Beeping?" He repeated curiously as he stood from whatever he was fixing for Michael now. "No I don't hear any beeping. Did you tell Eliza?"

Sam snorted and nodded her head. "She thinks I have Marshall Ears. But I don't, I swear. My brother had that once when he first came home from the black and he said his ears hurt like tiny little crabs were crawling in his ear canals and pinching like crazy. My ears don't hurt and I don't have any of the other symptoms either. I got Alex to list 'em for me. Getting him to talk was a trick and a half if you ask me, but I still got it out of him. I even got him to check on my ears and he said their fine, well apart from the beeping obviously."

Sam waited for Jules to say something, but he kept quiet. Through her quiet prompting, Myles turned his head and watched Jules and then quietly asked Sam why humans had to speak to communicate. The dog way was so much more understandable.

Sam didn't answer and instead watched Jules through her dog's eyes as he tilted his head and listened to something, although when Sam (and Myles who had better hearing) listened hard they couldn't hear anything apart from the whine and hum of Serenity.

"Do you hear something too?" She asked.

Jules straightened and looked at her as if he had just realized she was still there. "Wha-? Oh, no, nothing." Myles watched as he ducked his head and fiddled with the pipe in front of him. The dog snorted.

_He's a bad liar._ He told Sam.

_Granted, but if figures this out he can lie about what he hears all he wants._

But out loud she asked, "Nothing huh? You sure look like something's bothering you."

Jules waved his hand around his head as if he was waving away a fly. "Nah, its nothing." But he didn't look up from his work.

Sam shifted her weight to one foot and crossed her arms over her chest. Myles, taking a cue from his girl, growled very lightly (but not menacingly I should add) at Jules. "What's nothing?" She asked. As distracted as Jules was by his own thoughts, he did notice Sam's attitude. He suspected that this was the tone and force of will that she used to get her elder brother to confess that he had put pudding in her new dollhouse. However he was so distracted that most of her force was lost on him.

"It's nothing." He maintained. "You said you heard the beeping in the cargo hold? I'll go check it out later today if I have any time." Somewhere down the hall a different pipe busted and hot steam whistled out of the corroded metal. He grumbled hotly under his breath. "I'll talk to later Sam." He said hurriedly before grabbing his thick gloves and rushing towards the break.

Sam rolled her whitish eyes and beckoned to Myles to follow her. With a fierce determination on her face she stalked down the hall towards the bridge. She would figure this out even if Captain Tam thought she was crazy. She would.

********

By the end of the week she was about ready to confess she _was_ crazy and just let them take her away to an asylum next time they docked. The beeping had gotten worse throughout the week and now it filled the whole ship with its racket. And still, no one else could hear it.

By the ship's clock it was after midnight. Sam, itchy eyed and too exhausted to sleep, buried her head under her pillow, hoping to block out the persistent noise. It never ended. It just went on and on, louder and louder every time, like someone's broken alarm clock.

When the clock clicked to a minute past twelve she shot up, throwing her sheets and beaten up pillow halfway cross the small room.

"That's it!" She yelled. "I can't take it anymore! I'll find that broken record and shut it up if it kills me."

Myles sat up and panted at her. He always did love it when Sam got so riled up. It was a big game where she would throw things around like a bunch of Frisbees that he could jump up and catch.

But much to his disappointment, she didn't throw anything else besides her bed sheets. Instead she threw her clothes on and scampered up the ladder and out the door. Myles watched her go (she hadn't needed his help to find the ladder since the second day they had lived here).

"Myles!" She cried from the top level.

With a snort (he would much rather be sleeping at this hour) Myles hopped up and trotted through the small, square hole that had been made for small animals (one of the previous owners had adored rabbits more then anything and had kept several on board) so they could travel between the bedrooms and the rest of the ship.

Sam ducked down and grabbed for the stiff collar that Myles wore for her sake, then with sharp steps they marched down the hall to the cargo room.

"Well?" Sam bellowed to the largest room on Serenity. "Where are you?!"

The beeping taunted her by continuing in its usual, constant way.

Myles whined painfully. He could hear the beeping too because, after all, he was a dog and his hearing was very fine especially compared to a humans.

When the beeping didn't answer (Sam was embarrassed to say even to Myles that she _had _expected it to answer in some way) Sam turned to Myles.

"Well can you tell where it is?" She asked irritated.

Myles huffed and trotted off to inspect the numerous boxes that littered the hold. He sniffed at one, then ignored another, and barely glanced at a third before coming to the mysterious box that Elizabeth had received from the post man when she had picked up the load of fish.

"This one?" Sam asked. "Really?" The beeping wasn't any stronger or clearer around the box like she had expected it to be. The only strange thing she could discern about the box was that it still smelled slightly of fish.

Kneeling down, Sam reached out her hand and found the top of the box. It was smooth and cold, metal she realized, unlike the rough wooden crates that filled the rest of the room. There were no markings or electronic faces engraved or fastened to the top or sides that she could feel or Myles could see. She remembered that Captain Tam had told her that it had been in a box at first, just as plain and wooden as the ones surrounding her now, and the name and address had been posted on there. Now it was just a long box with nothing distinguishing about it except that it was made of metal.

Sam went over the whole surface of the box. When she found nothing besides dust on top of it she slammed her fist down on it.

"Stop your beeping already!" She screamed.

It only increased.

"Aghhhh!!!" She yelled frustrated and angry and she hit the box again.

Myles barked at her.

"What is it Myles?" She yelled over the beeping.

He opened his mouth wide and made a loud doggish groan that ended in a whine and a sneeze. Then when he was sure he had her attention he spun around and pawed at the bottom end of the box. When she didn't come fast enough he pawed and scratched at it again.

"What?" She demanded again, but came over to feel the box anyway. The beeping was very loud here although not five minutes before it had been just as muffled there as in the rest of the room. She reached out and felt a ledge with buttons and a small screen that she could not read. Now she was more confused then angry because she knew for certain that it hadn't been there before.

"What is it Myles?" She asked, finding his head and asking him through the implants her uncle had given them to look at the ledge and tell her what was on it.

"What are you doing in here at this hour?"

The new voice made Sam and Myles jump. Sam stood up and turned, her heart pounding in her chest. "Jules!" She yelled wishing her heart would quit bruising her ribs. "What are you doing? Don't scare me like that!" She whispered fiercely only now remembering that it was well after midnight and everyone else would not be kind if she woke them up now with her yelling.

She heard Jules turn a switch, most likely for the lights. She hadn't turned on the lights since they wouldn't help her and Myles would have told her if he could not see through the murk. "I asked you first." He said. "What are doing with the box? And at this hour too?" He asked sounding suspicious now."

Sam half turned toward the box again and kicked it lightly. "The beeping is coming from here."

"Don't kick it." Jules told her making his way through the maze of other boxes toward her and Myles.

"Why? It's not like someone's in there." She said. No one alive could put up with that infernal beeping so close to them.

Jules was silent for a moment and Sam could imagine him staring at the box in that thoughtful way of his. "It just reminds me of a coffin is all." He said softly, still staring at the box.

After another moment of silence where Jules watched the box just as Sam imagined he would, Myles pawed at Sam's leg with meaning. "Oh, right. A ledge appeared just a minute ago. It wasn't there when I walked into the room."

Jules gave her an inquisitive look before he remembered she couldn't see it and walked round the side of the box to look.

"Huh." He said as he bent down to take a closer look at it. Sam walked closer.

"Well what is it?" She asked curiously. Maybe they could finally turn off the stupid beeping.

"I'm not sure." Jules said. Sam heard several noises that made her think Jules was messing with the various buttons she had felt. "I'll ask Michael in the morning. Maybe he'll know."

"Or you can ask now." A tired voice spoke from the door.

Myles turned to look and told Sam that both Michael and the captain were standing in the doorway looking very, very tired. The captain had a pistol in hand and Michael had a large wrench, which he threw down when he saw it was only Sam and Jules. Sam thought this was a bit much. They were drifting through space after all and not many people could break in without notice and noise. Jules wasn't so surprised. Everyone had been a little jumpy since John had turned on them.

"What in the world are you two doing in here this early in the morning?" Elizabeth snapped, but Sam was glad to hear that she lowered the gun despite her rotten mood.

"There's something new on the bottom of the box." Jules said not looking up from the ledge. Sam couldn't tell if he was focusing on it or he was so distracted he couldn't make any sense out of it. "It looks vaguely familiar, but I don't recognize it."

Michael and Elizabeth came forward to see what he meant. Michael inspected the panel of buttons and Jules got out of the way, running his hands distractedly through his hair, making it stand on end. He hadn't heard the disembodied voice for some time, but now there was a pressure in the air that didn't quite make sense. It had accompanied the voice at times, however now it was heavier and full of...something. He couldn't quite name what it was.

Michael whistled, impressed and now wide awake. "Whoever made this must be a genius. Way ahead of our time. I _think_ it's supposed to power up a device of some kind."

Sam saw that Captain Tam looked confused. "So," She said and tried to think through her weariness. "It's the start button?" She asked.

Michael nodded. "Basically."

"But what does it start?" Sam asked just as confused as the captain.

A look of impish and childish mischievous glee entered his brown eyes. "You want to find out?" He asked.

Sam heard the captain sigh and Myles saw that she held her head as if it was aching. "Alright yes, I want to know what's in it. But go get Alex and Taylor first, just in case it isn't friendly. I've had enough of surprises."

Jules went and came back a few minutes later with Taylor, Alex, and Ruth behind him, dressed in bed clothes with each with a serious case of bed head.

"What?" Taylor whined as he stumbled over half the crates in the room before finally making it to where the rest of them stood around the coffin shaped box.

"Michael thinks we can finally open the mystery box." The captain said. "I just want to make sure there are enough hands around in case it turns out to be yet another catastrophe." She said somewhat angrily.

"Right." Taylor said trying desperately to keep his eyes open. "Just let me get my gun." He was still half asleep so he didn't even make it out the door. The third time he tripped over a box on the way out he didn't get back up. Only said, "I'm okay." And possibly might have gone back to sleep.

"Oh dear," Michael said standing up from where he had been peering at the panel. "Maybe this isn't the best idea Eliza."

Eliza was already nodding. "Maybe you should stand there and look menacing Taylor." She told him shaking her head and motioning for Michael to continue.

Sam backed away with Myles, suddenly afraid of what might come out of the strange box. Eliza straightened her arm again and aimed at the head of the box. The others prepared as best they could, Michael ready to leap back incase whatever came out wasn't friendly, Alex stayed in front of Ruth for the same reason, and Taylor just stayed on the floor behind the box he'd tripped over although they didn't know if this was on purpose or not. Jules however just stood by the box, staring at it, as if no one else was in the room and nothing strange was not about to happen.

"Ready?" Michael asked. Eliza nodded. "Alright then." He said and pressed a series of buttons. With one last look up at his wife and a worried glance at Jules who still stood there staring at the box, he held down the only button he hadn't touched and took a large step back.

What happened next wasn't quite what everyone had expected. There was no sudden gust of white mist, no futuristic hiss of air (although there was a bit of a pop as the air equalized) and most definitely no horrific space alien with four rows of needle sharp teeth jumped out to devour them whole.

Instead there was a girl.

"Well I'll be..." Michael didn't finish his sentence. He was too busy staring at the raven haired girl in the box. He knew her. Alex knew her. They had seen her in pictures their great grandmother had put in photo caches to trace and record there family tree.

"Isn't that...?" Eliza asked as she came closer to inspect the girl.

"It is." Alex said.

"But it isn't possible." Michael said incredulously.

Sam had had enough. "What isn't possible?" She demanded.

Alex answered her. "It's, uh, it's our great-great-great aunt." With each 'great' his voice got weaker as if he couldn't believe what he was saying. "River Tam."

In the quiet that followed Sam thought she might have heard that name before.

* * *

Alright so those that reviewed were right. It was River in the box. But what kind of writer would I be if I just told you the secret? That'd be like telling the ending to the Sixth Sense or that Dumbledore dies at the end of the book. Anyway, I hope you liked the suspense even if you guessed the truth. And don't forget to review please! Have a happy Thanksgiving!


	10. Chapter 10: River

Alright so I suppose I've kept y'all in suspense long enough. Here's the next chapter. Hopeful there's nothing glaringly grammatically wrong with it. Finals are stating to get to me. I keep trying to use periods in place of...whatever this thing (thing= ' ) is called again. Oh boy I need a nap...

* * *

Finding Her Serenity

Chapter Ten: River

"River Tam."

The name echoed around the cargo hold and through the minds of the crew surrounding the girl in the box.

"It's impossible." Ruth spoke the words that were on everybody's mind. "It's been two hundred years. She must be dead." She said with only the slightest shake in her voice.

But the girl didn't look dead. They could all see the rise and fall of her chest, like she was sleeping. Besides that, the girl in the box looked just like River Tam looked in the pictures. Just like she should.

She had raven black hair. None could tell how long it was since it was pressed down under her back although they could see the tips of it around her hips. She was pale, almost as pale as the White Witch of Narnia whose only color had been her very red lips. The contrast between her skin and her hair was striking. She wore a dark tunic with an orange and black logo on the front and loose leggings. She didn't have any shoes at all. Far from looking like a two hundred year old woman, she looked like a girl of eighteen, maybe even younger.

Alex stepped closer and peered in the box. "What is this?" He asked looking at the clear, viscous, liquid she was covered with. As they watched, the liquid fell away as if it was sucked out from the cavity that held the girl. Before it was completely gone, Alex scooped some up on a pen he happened to have in his pocket.

"Is she dead?" Ruth asked sounding unsure and afraid.

Sam snorted. She couldn't see the girl and that helped her feel less afraid. "Of course she's dead. You can't survive for two hundred years in a box."

That should have been true. Medical science had advanced to the point where they could cure cancer and diabetes, but living in a box for two hundred years on life support (they're must be some kind of support they all thought) was absolutely impossible. The human body wasn't designed to survive that long.

But then the thick liquid was gone, and the girl took a deep, startling breath of air.

Ruth screamed, but she was the only one. The rest stared in shock and slight horror but only Michael (who was the closest) took a step back. Taylor bothered enough to sit up and poke his head over the crate he had tripped over. Jules didn't even twitch.

With one breath came another and then another, and soon she was gasping and heaving like a person freshly pulled from a lake. Her eyes shot open, big, brown eyes almost as dark as her hair, and she turned her stiff head this way and that trying to see who had woken her.

"Simon." She gasped as she looked for her brother. "Simon?" Her voice took on a pleading tone. She managed to move her arms now reaching up to the dark figure standing over her she thought was her brother. "Simon, help." She held out her small hands imploringly.

Jules reached down and gently pulled her up. She floundered, like a mermaid with legs, when her feet touched the smooth floor her hands slipped through Jules's grip and she landed with a thump on the floor. She was wet and sticky from the liquid she had been floating in. The orange thing that had been on her chest slipped and fell to the floor next to her. No one realized it was a cat until it stuck its head out and meowed pitifully. It did not enjoy the wet sensation or being woken from its very long nap.

River was staring at Jules intently in a fuzzy sort of way. "Simon you don't look right." She muttered, sounding dazed and confused. She lifted a hand to touch his face when she saw the fluid dripping off her wrist in thick, sticky dollops.

"I'm all wet Simon." She said.

Jules swallowed hard. "You just need a bath River." He told her.

She nodded loosely. The loose movement of her neck seemed to travel down to the rest of her body. Her shoulders sagged, her spine relaxed, and her hips fell back. Soon she was on the floor, passed out into the first real sleep she had had in a long while.

There was a moment where all anyone could do was stare at her.

But then Alex came forward and picked her up with one arm under her shoulders and the other under her knees. Her head and hair lolled over his elbow so she looked more like a fragile doll than a girl.

"Taylor, can you go ahead and open the door for me? She's heavier then she looks." He asked in his cool voice.

Tired though he was Taylor still managed to avoid tripping over anymore boxes as he walked across the room and down the hall to open the infirmary doors. Ruth, who had picked up the saturated feline, and Jules, who still seemed to be in a half focused state, followed him.

Without the strange girl in the room, it felt easier to breath and almost at once, Sam, Michael and Eliza all took a deep breath and let it out in a whoosh of air.

"It can't be her." Eliza said.

Michael nodded. "She must be a mental patient of some kind. Who else would lock themselves in a box with a cat?"

"Poor cat." Eliza said distractedly.

Sam snorted.

"Well this does make a certain amount of sense, giving it was the Old Alliance after her." Michael said.

Eliza didn't look to certain. "I don't know..." She trailed off, staring wide eyed at the box.

Sam was not as up to date on reasons why old governments would want crazy girls. "A girl who's been supposedly dead for two centuries just climbed out of a box with a cat. How does this make any sense whatsoever?" She asked.

"Have you heard the old rumors that the O.A. experimented on people with genius level I.Q. to turn them into super weapons?" Michael asked.

Sam shook her head. "Nope."

Eliza scoffed, but not at Sam. "I'm not surprised. Before the war broke out the O.A. tried to hush up what was known about River Tam. They couldn't keep the knowledge about Miranda secret, but they managed to keep their experiments safe." She sneered. "I guess the information was either lost or forgotten during the war except by a few like my grandfather, Malcolm Reynolds, and the crew of Serenity." Eliza said.

Sam thought hard, trying to remember anything about human experimentation from her history class. "So even the people in the New Alliance forgot? I thought that the founding members of the new government were just former members of the Old Alliance." Sam said.

Eliza nodded, though Sam couldn't see. "Yeah, some of them. I don't know if they knew about the experiments or if they conveniently forgot like the rest of the populace, but that has always worried me."

* * *

Several minutes later when River and her cat had been seen too, Eliza, Michael, Taylor, and Sam were gathered in the cockpit, too wound up to even try and sleep. Life altering impossibilities tend to do that to people at three in the morning.

"Well at least we know what they were after." Taylor said from where he leaned against the cockpit wall.

"But they couldn't have known that she was in the box." Michael said. Now that some of the shock at seeing his several times great aunt alive had worn off, he saw numerous problems with the whole 'the O.A. was after River Tam' plot he had first believed. "After all, if we couldn't discover what was in the box until it opened then how could they have known already?" It seemed a reasonable question.

"They didn't." His wife spoke up from the pilot's chair. "John said so when he tried to shoot me. He said that no one knew what was inside." She said.

Taylor looked confused. "Then who would want it and why?" He asked.

Eliza thought about that for a long moment. "I don't know." She finally answered. "But neither did John. Whoever hired him must've been tight lipped on the subject. And whether they knew River Tam was in the box or not they were willing to pay an awful lot of money to get their hands on it."

"Which means they won't just roll over and let us keep it." Michael said.

Myles groaned irritatedly at him.

Michael rubbed at the back of his head and took a wild guess as to what the canine was telling him. "Oh, sorry Myles. I didn't mean that rolling over was a bad thing for dogs, just humans."

Myles snorted, but made no further complaints.

Sam ignored Myles's slight distraction and thought that the others were all avoiding the main question. "So what do we do now?" She asked.

Eliza, Michael, and Taylor all looked at each other for a long moment, communicating in the way that most long term friends have developed. After silently debating the answer to Sam's question Eliza came up with the very sensible response of, "Nothing."

Sam blinked incredulously at the captain and thought she must have heard wrong. "Nothing?" She asked to be sure.

Eliza shrugged. "Nothing. The main reason being that there is nothing that we can do at this point. We don't know who's after us and we don't know what they want."

"To sum it all up we're completely clueless." Taylor added.

"Yep, pretty much." Eliza said as she rose to her feet. "Now if you'll excuse me I'm going back to bed. It's too early for weighty discussions like these." She said as she made her way down the steps to her room.

Sam was still trying to figure out if she was joking or not. "So you're seriously just going to wait until someone blows you out of the black?" She yelled down the hall.

Eliza turned and grinned wolfishly at the girl. "Not at all. I'm going to wait until they _try_ to blow us up. Then I'm going keelhaul their sorry hides under my after burners." She said before disappearing down the ladder and climbing back into bed.

The scary part was that Sam knew she would too.

* * *

Later that night, after everyone else had finally fallen asleep (which had taken much longer then usual) Jules sat watching the girl from the box sleep in the infirmary. He had taken up watch duty so that Alex could get some rest. The doctor would have stayed up all night to make sure her vitals didn't crash during the night, but Jules had finally convinced him.

Physically Jules was as tired as everybody else on board, but his mind was too alert for sleep. He couldn't help but think that the ghostly, pleading voice he had heard had come from this girl. And that led to a whole new batch of strange questions.

Jules didn't delude himself into thinking that this girl could be just your average, unstable teenager. Even asleep she had that air of the Academy about her. But who was she really? Jules wondered. Could she really be the long lost River Tam? It didn't seem probable but Jules knew better then to think that it was impossible, especially for the Academy.

The girl groaned lightly in her sleep and rolled over. The orange striped cat (which was doing as well as the girl) lifted its head the tiniest bit at the girl's movement and then snuggled closer to the girl's neck, seeking warmth.

Jules sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. He was getting no where. He didn't dare wake her up to ask her questions. She needed real sleep after all of that time in the box and he couldn't be sure that she would tell him the truth anyway. No, the easiest way to get the truth was to just simply test her and see if she had the psychic ability that most of the Academy's students had.

Wiping his sweaty hands on his pants, Jules stood up and took slow steps towards the sleeping girl. He was hesitant about trying this. He had only attempted it once, doctor's orders, and he had been slammed against the far wall with the rebound of the other person's psychic energy. And if this girl _was_ River Tam then he had no doubt that he would not only slam into the far wall (which wasn't that far away). He might just as well go through it too.

Still, he had to know, for real and for true, if she was from the Academy, legendary escapee or not. So he stepped to the edge of the infirmary's small bed and carefully put a hand on her head.

He only had a second to feel an immense power hiding behind a thin protective barrier before the girl's eyes snapped open.

She had incredibly dark brown eyes Jules saw.

They were also incredibly intense. He took a step back, attempting to put some space between him and those eyes. He had never thought to call eyes piercing before, but hers went right through him, as if she was scrutinizing his very core.

He swallowed hard. "I'm glad to see you're awake." He said carefully.

She watched him a moment longer, her mouth open as if she was about to say something. But then the harsh clarity faded from those large brown eyes and once more she looked like a sad, delicate, doll of a teenage girl.

"Simon?" She asked like a small child. "Simon I'm lost."

Carefully, Jules sat down on the edge of the bed next to the girl. "River?" He asked cautiously.

She blinked at him. "Simon?" She asked now sounding very confused.

Jules shook his head. "No," he said and pointed at his chest, "Jules."

A trace of panic appeared in her eyes as they roved Serenity's small infirmary. "Jules? No, where's Simon? Simon!" She called again, trying to sit up. Jules pressed her back down, but hysteria had her in its grip now and she fought him with a surprising strength that one wouldn't expect from a slender girl who had been in a steel box for two centuries.

"River you need to relax-" He tried.

"Simon!" River yelled, struggling to reach the door. "Simon where are you? Simon!" There was a desperate shriek at the end of her scream.

"He'll be right back!" Jules yelled over her, hoping she would believe him, at least for now.

It worked. River's hazy brown eyes snapped back to Jules, examining his face. Jules swallowed; he could see her sharp intelligence behind the thin veil he had sensed hiding her enormous psychic ability.

"He's coming back?" She asked, relaxing slightly.

Jules nodded hesitantly. He hated lying on normal days, much less days like this.

River's face relaxed into a child-like smile. "Really?" She asked in a soft voice.

Jules nodded. "Really." He told her. "He just went to talk to Kaylee for a moment. She's worried about you, you know." He said, dredging up what he knew of Michael and Alex's great-great-great grandparents.

River laughed as she sunk into her sheets. "She always did worry too much." She mumbled as her eyes closed and sleep claimed her once more.

Jules sighed, relieved those deep brown eyes were no longer pinned on him. He ran a hand through his hair as he thought about what to do next. Alex would probably want to know that she had woken up. Jules made to leave, but a strong grip stopped him. He looked down in surprise to see that River's long fingers were wrapped around his hand. She must have grabbed him when she was trying to escape the infirmary to look for her brother. Jules guessed that she just hadn't bothered to let go.

Not wanting to wake her again by trying to pry her hand off his, Jules settled back onto the edge of the bed.

"Simon..." She mumbled sadly in her sleep.

A deep empathy took hold in Jules's chest. River had loved her brother so much and now, even though she didn't know it yet, she was alone. Jules could understand that. His parents and brothers were dead, killed in the same Old Alliance raid he had been captured in. He had been very young at the time, only seven years old, and hadn't understood what was happening. He had cried for weeks afterward, wondering why his family didn't come and rescue him.

Jules gently squeezed River's pale hand. "You really aren't that different from me are you?" He asked her quietly, not expecting an answer.

He didn't get one. River slept on, not even dreaming.

Throughout the long hours before Alex returned to the infirmary and helped to loosen River's tight grip on Jules's then very numb hand, Jules watched the sleeping girl next to him. He saw that she was beautiful as well as frightening and also horribly, painfully alone. Even sleeping he could see that she was like him in more ways than one. But when he looked closer he saw, that while she was very similar, she was also more; more potential and more vital to whomever had created the both of them. She was at the center of everything and if he stayed this close to her, holding her hand so tight that he could feel the pulse in her wrist, he would be as well.

The thought made Jules cold all over.

* * *

The hairs on the back of your neck standing up yet? Because you should be starting to feel that nervous feeling in the pit of your stomach right about now...


End file.
